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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1949)
Oliver Twist Turns That the sore thumb may be sore, not so much because of the big bruise on the end as because of the belligerent way in which the owner bangs it with a hammer, has been demonstrat ed again this week—this time by the Jews of Berlin and by the “liberal” elements in all nations who pose as friends of an op pressed minority. The occasion for the most recent outburst of racial (or re ligious) feeling has been the showing in Berlin of a film adap tation of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.” Students who are not dependent upon English courses for their knowledge of literature will perhaps remember the novel. It is the story of an indigent child of nineteenth century England. As a toddler he is turned into the streets of London to fend for himself in a city that was feeling the growing pains of the industrial revolution. Young Oliver underwent all the horrors of capitalistic society. No Marxist ever painted the evils of the factory-city system as well as Dickens, the respectable Victorian. Anyway, Oliver met a lot of rough characters. One of them was named Fagin. Fagin taught young boys to steal. Fagin was portrayed in the novel as “a Jew.” Fagin was also portray ed as a scoundrel of the first water. With rare adherence to the original script, the movie mak ers (British) made Fagin out to be an unsavory character who taught young boys to steal. They also make him out to be a Jew. And there lies the source of trouble. Phoney liberals all over the world have tabbed the film “anti-Semitic." This week mobs of Berlin Jews banged the tender sore thumb by rioting before the Berlin theater where the film was showing. Naturally the Russian-controlled press in Eastern Berlin siezed the opportunity to whoop it up. The Russians, no fools in matters of propaganda, have pointed to the film and to the firm treatment of Western Berlin police gave the rioters, as ex amples of the true “anti-Semitic" nature of the Socialistic Brit ish. They have also managed to drag in the Capitalistic United States, and prove all sorts of “anti-Semitic” things about this country. It goes almost without saying that the charges of “anti Semitism" are absurd. If we are to scrub up Dickens because of his portrayal of a fictional character in a way that was alto gether common in his day, so then must we bowdlerize Shake speare and the Bible, Chaucer and many other greats and near greats of this and other literatures. It would follow, too, that Nigger Jim in “Huckleberry Finn’ would become just another character—and a pretty lifeless one without Mark Twain’s su perb artistry in painting racial traits- lovable traits in Jim!s case. Viewed as propaganda, “Oliver Twist" is much less “anti Semitic" than “anti-British." The Russian press and the liber als who aid it have neglected to point to one Mr. Sykes, cohort of Fagin, who is an altogether British type. They have failed to point to the whole background of the novel as an indictment of the British heritage. Both these factors are equally as pro nounced as any “anti-Semitism.” Nobody can blame the Russians for doing what comes nat urally. It is an ideal tactical situation for the Communists. Nor is it too easy to find fault with the Jews who have a right to be pretty sensitive after their unpleasant experience with violent anti-Semitism—an anti-Semitism of a kind that need not be put in quotes. But one is hard put to sympathize with the long-haired indi viduals whose sense of social responsibility is such that they pounce all too eagerly upon poor old Oliver Twist as an ex ample of British hatred for the Jews. It has all the earmarks of the venerable challenge: “Lets You and Him Fight." The Okiv.on Duty Em krai u. published daily during the college year except Sundays, Mondays, lu>lida>s. ami final examination periods by the Associated Students. l'niversit> of Oregon. Subscription tales: S.MH) per term and $4.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. 1H1.1 YATES. I'M it or Hob Kccvi, Managing Editor V IRC. 11 Turn M' riVKKK, Busmen Manager el.uughliu, Asst’ Hus. Mgr. Associate Editor*: June t.oet/e, Hoblee Bropliy, Diana D>e. Barbara Hey wood Advertising Manager: Joan M incut ugh V tU'KR m;\vs STAFF Stan TurnSull, News Kditor Tom King. Sports Kditor Dick Drainin', Snorts Kditor Tout Marqliis. Radio Kditor Walter Dodd. Krarure Kditor \\ arren l oilier, t met Night r .iur Don Smith. Ass't Managing Kditor Ken Met/ler, Ass't News Kditor Atm Goodman, Ass't News Kditor UPPER BUSINESS STAFF Helen Sherman, Citvulatum Mgr. Lve Overbeek. Nat’l Aiiv. Mgr. Hill Lemon, Sales MgT. Leslie Tou/e, A>$’t Aii\ Mgr. (. ork Mobley, \ss t AUv. Mgr. Virginia Mahon, Ass't Adv. Mgr. Donna Brannan. Ass't Adv. Mgr. Jack Schnaidt, Ass’t Adv. Mgr. This is Brotherhood Week - - Attack theUndemocratic In connection with the current National Brotherhood week, Feb ruary 20 to 27, the Oregon Daily Emerald is printing the follow ing editorial, submitted to it by Paul C. Smith, editor and publish er of the San Francisco Chroni cle. National Brotherhood week is sponsored by the National Con ference of Christians and Jews, Inc., and is under the chairman ship of Nelson A. Rockefeller. The purpose of the conference is: To promote justice, amity, understanding, and co-opera tion among Protestants, Catho lics, and Jews; and to analyze moderate, and finally eliminate intergroup prejudices which disfigure and distort religious, business, social, and political relations, with a view to the es tablishment of a social order in which the religious ideals of brotherhood and justice shall become the standards of human relationships.” Mr. Smith writes: “Hatred,” wrote Maurice Maeterlinck^ “is the heaviest load that man can bear on this earth.” In this week of Brotherhood, sponsored by the National Con ference of Christians and Jews, we have a time for thinking out ways and means for dispersing not only the forces of hate, but the concomitant evils of intoler ance, disunity, discrimination, and the bonds upon civil rights. This is not to be merely a sweet, seven-day ride on clouds of sentimentality. It is actually a time for acknowledging pub licly tlie unselfish work of a group of people whose fight goes on day by day, year by year. The firmly rooted prejudices that exist here- and there in this world cannot be changed at once by law. But general bet t e r m e n t will surely come through unrelenting attack on the undemocratic enemies of brotherhood wherever they ex ist. Education, economic com fort, and health are heavy weapons in this attack. Americans everywhere owe it firm allegiance. —PAUL C. SMITH On the newspaper committee of the conference are many promi nent personalities of the Ameri can press. Chairman of the com mittee is N. R. Howard of the Cleveland News. Included in the list of committee members are: Marquis Childs, national column ist, Washington, D. C., and Gard ner Cowles, head of Cowles Pub lications, publishers of Look mag azine and the Des Moines Regis ter-Tribune. Oveta Culp Hobby, former di rector of the WAC, and wife of the publisher of the Houston Post, Palmer Hoyt of the Denver Post. Roy A. Roberts, president of the Kansas City Star, and Paul C, Smith, editor of the San Francis co Chronicle. Lest Anniversary of March 4,1933,Be Forgotten Hoover, Years Later, Gains Reward COMING UP ON March 4, and likely to pass unnoticed because of the change in the date of the presidential inauguration, is the 16th anniversary of the eviction of a beaten and bitter president. Today Herbert Hoover, the man who was evicted from the White House four presidential elections ago, blamed for the slump and called bull-headed and anti-social, is back in Washington. The only living former president is now chairman of the Commission on Organization of the executive branch of the government tthe Hoover Commission). HOOVER DOES not look his 74 years. Though mellowed some what by years of outstanding work, he still drives himself and others relentlessly. He has not been able to overcome his obstin acy and domineering ways; though today they just call it “firmness in his convictions." Experience has taught him that the best way to iron out a dis agreement with his associates is over a meal. So Hoover seldom eats a meal alone. In Washington Hoover lives in a simple suite at the Mayflower hotel, from where he walks to work every day. Much of his work however, is done from his apartment in the Waldorf-Astor ia Towers in New York. HIS PERMANENT HOME, though, is Stanford, California, and it was at Stanford university Herbert Hoover—1933 Stiff Collar and Bull-Headed that Hoover got his degree in en gineering. This had led to mining engineering jobs all over the world. His knowledge of Europe se cured for him the job of directing the U.S. relief work there after the first World War. He was elected president in 1928 mainly as a result of this work. SINCE 1947 he has been boss of the commission organizing the executive branch of the govern ment. The nation's forgotten pres ident has won himself prestige in his new role as i'ts elder states man. In this role he is a much happier man. Herbert Hoover—1949 Soft Collar and Mellowed She was only a moonshiner's daughter, but I love her still. Scott and Sons Complete automotive Repairs and 76 service. Fender Work THIS WEEK’S SPECIAL Thorough Lub. job plus 5 quts. Triton oil.2.75 Speedy Dependable Work Ph. 732 947 Franklin