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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1948)
A Britisher Views an American Election tor First I ime By JOHN L. MARTIN Democrats in the United States are dancing the hokie-pokie—a new step invented to celebrate an unexpected victory. Well, Americans are only liv ing up to their reputation. The French have a word for it; the Germans have a book for it; the Arabs have a curse for it; the British have a drink for it; and the Americans have a dance for it. Britain is pleased, right pleased to see Mr. Truman win. Govern ment circles in England had been “CLEM” ATTLEE Would Tom Dewey have cut his “allowance” had the New York governor been elected president, L. John Martin, an Englishman, asks in the accompanying article. more than a little worried about the outcome of the U.S. elections. They had been worrying be cause of thetir socialisation pro gram for the iron and steel in dustries. What if Tom objected EDITOR'S NOTE This article was written for the Emerald by L. John Martin, an Englishman who came to the campus this fall from Palestine, where he edited the Palestine II ustrated News for two years. Martin is a graduate assistant in the school of journalism. to Clem's ideas and cut off his al lowance ? Conservatives in England had been rubbing their hands glee fully for some time. ‘‘That’ll l’arn ’em!” they laughed up their sleeves, referring to Clem, Ernest, Stafford & Co. In the meantime they poured their invective on Harry’s head. The appeaser, they called- him in The Spectator, or words to that effect. He wants to curry favor with the Russians, when the only hope of the world lies in a firm western bloc. Here, in the heart of the Re publican camp, people were going round with smiles on their faces. The Reepublicans were smiling. There was even a suspicion of relief in their voices. I shall never get over that. The Americans had voiced their de sires. They had told the lads back in Washington how they wanted to be governed. Some had bet on the wrong horse. Yet they were happy. They had been free to choose. II mere is au^ have revived a person’s waning faith in humanity, this was it. If anything could prove that Amer icans have a democratic form of government, the unpredictable ness of the elections did. This just couldn’t have hap pened in Nazi German or in So viet Russia. Elections are a fore gone conclusion in such coun tries. Hence the surprise of the Japanese, who said when the elec tion results became known: “But I thought Mr. Dewey had al ready been elected!” England admires a fighting spirit such as the Democrats have shown. She, too, proved during the war that her slogan is: While there’s life there’s hope. England admires the sporting (Please turn to page eight) I A Fruitful Event “Potential Dorothy Thompson, meet Potential Walter Winchell.” “How do you do, sir, and how do you lay out YOUR edi torial page?” “How do YOU do madam. I eliminate all column rules and indent two picas.” That’s a completely imaginary conversation between two delegates at the school of journalism sponsored Oregon High School Press conference going on today and Saturday. Conference is a stagnant name for the event, though. It’s an idea fair. Oregon high school students meet each othei to trade suggestions, ideas, practical tips. They see how a college newspaper is run, and talk to faculty members, and Eugene newspapermen, advertisers and business men. Faculty advisors from the high schools also will be pres ent to attend the various talks, seminars and round table dis cussions with the students. They may pick up new ideas for courses. Here are some examples drawn at random of speeches. They’re varied: NEWSPAPER: Overhauling the Editorial and Feature Page; How To Take Reliable Student Opinion Polls. MECHANICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: Yearbook Printing and Engraving; Photography for Newspapers and Yearbooks. BUSINESS AND ADVERTISING: Better Advertising Layout and Copy; Effective Business policies. MISCELLANEOUS: Japan Today: Oregon’s Part In Electing Presidents; Getting A Start In College Publications. All in all. we thirrk the press conference is one of the more fruitful events sponsored by the University. It can help the students decide whether or not journalism is their field and— we might as well admit it—it may convince some that Oregon is the University that will prepare them for their field. B. H. Maybe Yours Was One Approximately 100 students will not receive tickets to the Oregon State game because they did not mark their tickets properly. Executive council members drew 1600 tickets by mistake from the box Monday night. But, the error proved a bles sing when list compilers found that difficulties arose when deciphering names. Rather than suffer extreme eye-strain, illegibly signed tickets or those not signed were junked. Students who had turned in more than one ticket had their names removed from the lists also. Next time, to avoid being penalized for non-readable sig nature it is suggested that students either learn to write legi bly or use a typewriter. D. D. Oregon If Emerald The Orfoon Daily Kmkrm.d. published daily during the college year except Sundays Mondays, holidays, and final examination periods by the Associated Students, University o Oregon. Subscription rates: $2.00 per term and $4.00 per year. Entered as second-class matte nt the postodice, Eugene, Oregon. BILL YATES. Editor Bob Reed. Managing Editor VIRGIL TUCKER. Business Manager Tom McLaughlin, Adv. Manager Associate Editors: June Goetze, Bobolee Brophy, Dutta Dye, Barbara Hey wood. UPPER NEWS STAFF Mike Callahan. Stan rurnbull Co-News Kilt tors Glenn Gillespie. Sports Editor Vinita Howard. Women's Editor Hob Funk, Church Editor Lion Nmitn, Assistant managing r.jjtor Evelyn Nill ami Ann Goodman Assistant News Editors Jo Rawlins, Research Director Tec Arthur, Research Assistant * How Stassen Ignored Vanport's Negroes Ana... * Dewey Capitalized an Rival's Mistake (Editor’s Note: We wish to thank the Eugene Register Guard for their permission to re print the following article by Gordon A. Sabine, assistant pro fessor in the University’s school of journalism. Last summer Sa bine interviewed both major pres idential candidates to gain mate rial for a series of political arti cles he wrote for several national magazines. The following article tells of a significant talk he had with one of Thomas Dewey’s top lieutenants.) By GORDON A. SABINE The time was mid-july, nearly four months ago. The place was Poughkeepsie, N. Y„ where the personal staff of Governor Thomas E. Dewey was running the pre-campaign s'trat The speaker was Jim Hagerty, the governor’s press relations ex pert. “We’ll run a real quiet, digni fied campaign,” he was saying. “After all, why get people mad at us? No sense in getting there and letting loose with all we got, when we can win without being nasty.” Hagerty was looking forward to Washington. He wasn’t sure, not absolutely sure he was going there (“no one can be 100 per cent positive in this business”), but it looked like it. He had the campaign all planned, even at that time. “O'f course it’s planned,” he said. “After all, this is the third time we’ve been through this American • AIRLANES By TOM MARQUIS Coverage of the election re turns was carried out on a tre mendous scale, by nearly the en tire radio industry. The job of reporting the results turned out to be a longer job than many had expected. Radio commentators kept polit ical party leaders company dur ing the long vigil. Returns flashed to the various networks were broadcast almost immediately to an eager world. A list of the names of the vari ous commentators reads like a Who’s Who of the radio news world. Mutual’s broadcast, .spon sored by the Curtis Publishing company, had Gabriel Heatter, Fulton Lewis, Jr., William L. gshirer, John B. Kennedy, and Bill Henry, to name just a few. ABC returns were sponsored by Kai ser-Fraser and included Walter Winched, Drew Pearson, Dr. George Gallup (Heaven help him), Elmer Davis, and Martin Agronsky. The broadcasts were highly in formal and violated practically all the normal rules of good pro cedure, but under the circum stances rules meant little or noth ing. A slight altercation between Walter Winchell and Drew Pear son added to the informality and interest. Radio scores one point for a good job well done. * * * Bing Crosby may be known as the "Old Groaner," but his audi ences are feeling no pain. And neither, according to reports, is Crosby. Heard over more stations than any other radio artist “Der Bingle,” like old man river, just keeps rolling along. The 'saying goes that Crosby’s most hazard ous undertaking would be to fall off his wallet. Besides minting plenty of mon ey for himself, Bing is coining lots of good radio entertainment PSST/ YOU'RE ON 269ABC % STATIONS, AN' 175 OTHERS'? & STUPENDOUS, AIN'T IT? nraxiBBatf CROSBY BROADCASTS OVER THE GREATEST HOOKUP EVER ACCORDED AN ENTERTAINER/ for his listeners and plenty of good will for his sponsor, Philco. Heard every Wednesday over ABC, “Philco Radio Time” is easy listening. Crosby presides over the festivities in his usual easy going manner. The program regulars include the Rhythmaires and John Scott Trotter and his orchestra. Every week brings out a new guest or group of guests. Last Wednesday Bing was joined by Mortimer Snerd and Charlie Mc Carthy who with a little help from a promising chap named Bergen made mad rhythm of (Please turn to page seven) thing. You can t run, uae we uiu in 1940 and 1944, and not learn a lot of the tricks. “We used our know-how in this business to get the nomination away from Bob Taft and Stassen. We’re using it now, on the cam paign. . “It’ll be short and relatively sweet. If we needed to, we could go into the background of Tru man, and dig up that stuff on his mess with the Pendergast ma chine in Missouri. “And, brother, we have a lot of it, right in the files, waiting to be used. But we won’t need to.” Hagerty figured that the elec tion had been won—for the Re publicans—in Oregon. With the end of the voting, and with the result as it is, I am now able to reveal a story Hag erty told me in confidence this summer. It concerns a tiny incident, one of those little things that can make the difference in politics. And this particular incident, Dewey’s publicity man said, was a deciding factor that won for the New York governor in Ore gon. “You remember how small our final margin was in Oregon,” he related. “It was only about 9000, and a switch of comparatively few votes would have changed the result. “But that’s where our expe rience paid off.” People don’t ordinarily think of the Negro vote as being very im portant in the state, he went on, but Governor Dewey’s staff dis covered there was one concentra tion of Negroes in Vanport vil lage (before that area was flood ed). “There were about 5000 Ne groes in Vanport, and we went out there and spent an entire af ternoon with them, and let them know he understood their prob lems and desires. “Stassen just ignored them en tirely. He didn’t even come near the place—apparently he didn’t even know of th Negro vote. “Well, when the returns came in, we found that better than 4500 of the 5000 votes from the Negro section in Vanport were for Dewey. “Take those same 4500-plus, switch them the other way, and the other guy would have won Oregon’s convention votes. That’s just how close it was.” And if Stassen had won those Oregon nominating convention votes, Hagerty agreed, “Dewey sure would have had a tough time at Philadelphia.”