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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1949)
In Home Stretch Though the future of the mill race may look promising, let s hold back those cheers a moment and take a good look at the situation. The Monday evening city council did not assure the res toration of the millrace; it was merely another indication that the council is interested in seeing it done. In the past there has been a feeling on the part of some peo ple in the city that to spend so much money on a project with no practical use would be sheer folly. The report of the Mill race Park association was a means of proving to them that the restored mill race would be both beautiful and useful. Thus one of the main objections was removed. However, other obstacles are in the way. First, the other easements for mill race land must be obtained. There is still no mention of condemning the land by the city, and until all prop erty-owners agree, nothing definite can be undertaken. Even though 80 per cent have agreed to allow the race to run once more through their land, all must wait for the consent of those few others. The money problem will doubtless appear, too. The council has promised to match any amount up to $20,000 raised to finance the restoration. Even last year the Millrace Park asso ciation had pledges of $12,500, and now the council wants them to start collecting. Fraternity and sorority houses along the race have indicat ed their willingness to convert the gully in their back yards in to the stream of old. Theirs is not moral support alone, for each one has pledged a substantial contribution. Before the waters flow once more. University students and alumni will doubtless be called upon for their contributions, since the University peoplb are more eager than any other group to see the mill race restored. J.G. With the Legislators BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Salem The Oregon senate passed 19 to 10 yesterday and sent to the governor the old age pension bill. It gives the state a prior claim on estates of deceased pensioners, and provides $50 pensions if enough money is on hand to pay thin. Democrats lost 20 to 9 an effort to substitute a bill which called for $50 minimum pensions, and did not contain the prior claim clause. The vote on the motion was strictly on party lines. Old age pension leaders have threatened to refer the bill to the people in an effort to kill it. Th legislature moved along rapidly toward final adjournment. The house voted today to end the long session at 0 p.m. Thursday, but senate leaders predicted they would finish Friday or Saturday. The session already is 93 days old, compared with the record 81 day session of 1947. Governor Douglas McKay signed the bill to prevent any commun ity from adopting daylight saving time, unless the governor pro claims It for the whole state. The governor is given authority to pro claim it only to conform with Washington and California. The senate, doing what the house already had done, voted against a measure to block construction of the $12,000,000 Deschutes river power dam. The vote was 16 to 13. The joint ways and means committee prepared its 12-year $42, 000,000 program for new buildings for higher education ami state in stitutions. It would be financed by an $8,000,000 appropriation, plus a cigarette tax of two cents a package. The cigarette tax would be referred to the people. House members had a lot of sick grandmothers today at Port land's Vaughn street baseball park. The house finished its day'.s work at 1:15 p.m. and took off for the opening of Portland's coast league i baseball season. The senate planned to go, too, but it got tied up for 1>2 hours on ! the pension bill. By the time the senate adjourned, the game was five | minutes old and 50 miles away. I OregdnW Emerald Tin OmtctON 11 vti V Km fhai n, published daily during the college year except Sundays. Mondavs holukns, anil final examinatiuu periods by the Associated Students, l.niversity of Oregon". Subscription rates: $2.01) per term and $4.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter at the post office, Eugene. Oregon. Itll.l. VAXES, Editor VIRGIL TUCKER, Business Manager Associate Editors: June (metre, Holder Bropliy, Diana Dye, Barbara Heywood Advertising Manager: Joan Minnaugh BOB REED. Managing Editor Assistant Managing Editors: Stan Turnbull, Don Smith BOB TWF.EDK1.V,. City Editor Assistant City Editots: Ken Met.-ler, Atm Coodman DEBAR I'M ENT EDI TORS Tom King. Sports Editor Walter Dodd, Feature Editor Connie Jackson, Women's Editor Warren Collier, Chief Night Editor ’ NEWS EDITORS Chuck Crell, Hal Coleman, Steve i.oy, Vic Fryer, Diane Mecham urrsa aistnfss staff Helen Sherman, Circulation Mgr. Virginia Mahon, Ass’t Adv. Mgr Eve Overheck, Nat'l Adv. Mgr. Tack Schnaidt. Asst Adv. Mgr. Bill Lemon. Sales Mgr. Donna Bran nan, Ass't Adv. Mgt, Leslie Toote. Ass't Adv. Mgr. Cork Mobley. Ass't Adv. Mgr. That Rjre Spark What Makes a Professor Popular? Columnist Thinks He Has Answer By Mike Callahan This year may go down in his tory as the time of the Big Tal ent Hunt. On campuses from Ore gull IU 1V11CIU gan, once-meek students are eyeing their professors cold ly, rating their IT-appeal. IT is that rare spark that I separates the : teacher from uie bookworm scholar. The big question facing the student rat ers is just what habits or meth ods insure some professors of crowded, intent classes, while others drone year after year at empty chairs. * * * BEFORE STUDENT pollsters begin to take stock of Oregon’s faculty, this might be the time to pass along a few of our own opin ions on what makes for an inter esting and popular professor. Outsiders at Oregon and Michi gan snort at the mention of rat ing polls, and speak knowingly of blackmailing grades at the price of a good report. Yet one of the outstanding scholar-lecturers on this campus, one whose classes are always packed, might easily be known as “Old 2-point.” It has been said that getting a B out of him ranks just below winning the Congressional Medal. As a matter of fact, though, a raw deal on grading methods more than on individual grades, deserves mention in the ratings. A current story tells of an eco nomics professor whose grade curve is so low that the regis trar’s department has a special clerk to handle complaints from the students he flunks. The folly of using upper-division teaching and grading methods on begin ning students no doubt will be demonstrated in his reports. TWO LECTURE methods cur rently in use on this campus, and student raters, will finally have the chance to compare them. The popular history professor and one of his colleagues realized long ago that students in large classes will not bother to read assigned text chapters. Therefore, so as not to waste class time, the lec tures in their classes cover the important points in the course, presented in clear, note-easy out lines. Thus, in their lecture hours, the students quickly and painlessly learn the necessary facts, plus any other choice bits of humor or illustration the professors have gleaned in their private research. The second method, also wide ly used, calls for class discussion of reading assignments. In a small class, with an alert and witty professor, this has its points. * * * NOTABLE AMONG its fail ures though, is a certain political science instructor whose lectures creep along at a snail’s pace, con fused by pointless arguments, and the psychology professor who managed to cover a one-hour lec ture in three weeks. Reading and students suffer alike in such cases. And then there is the matter of those professors, few and far apart at Oregon who are human enough to cut loose with an oc casional “damn” in class ... or who, like another economics in structor, can mention and laugh about their own experiences with such varied matters as labor strikes or French morals. . . . ■ * * * THE DAY of the “tin god” pro fessor is over, and student rating results will praise those few who are wise enough to know that. Finally, if the faculty rating is a success, some thought might be given to overhauling some of the courses offered here and elsewhere. There is, for example, the geography class that pays close and loving attention to ob scure buttes in the Cascade foot hills ... or the psych class which tries to stretch two weeks’ work over twelve weeks of study, wast ing time and tempers. For the first time in academic history, students will have a voice in their own educations. On a college level, we think that voice should be given the strength of law. Book Review: Huxley Writes of Life in 2200 A.D. Ape and; Essence by Aldolus Huxley. Harper and Brothers (52.50). By Jo Gilbert HUXLEY’S DONE it again with Ape and Essence. This, like Brave New World, is set in the far future, the twenty-second century to be exact. Fantastic, insane is this glimpse into the world that might easily be. The story, written in the form of a movie script, opens with the death battle of a group of ba boons, each with an Albert Ein stein on the leash. It then switch es to a group of New Zealand sci entists who are exploring the supposedly desolate continent of North America, namely Southern California. New Zealand is the only country not destroyed by the disastrous World War III. BUT THERE are inhabitants on this continent... a post-atom ic society, degenerate and de praved, the lowest form of hu manity—their God. Belial. Into this falls one Dr. Poole, the total result of a domineering mother. The influence of this society upon the good doctor, and the influence of the good doctor upon one mem ber (female) of the society com prises the remainder of the plot. But it is the reasoning of the Arch-Vicar that makes the book more than imaginative dreaming . . . nightmarish though it may be. His description of the battle between good and evil, his reason ing of Belial’s rise to power . . , it terrifies you!! HUXLEY’S WIT is again di rected against smug, complacent man who can’t find the way out from the web of his own weaving. But in this, as in Brave New World, there is a way out. In the earlier book, it was an island. Here, it is a colony at Bakers field. There is really not much I can tell about the book. You have to read it yourself to appreciate the writing, the wit, and the reason ing. I can’t condense it, and the plot isn’t the book ... it is only the basis for the book. Dr. Dull, in recommending Ape and Essence to a group of stu dents, told them that it scared the “Belial” out of him. Move over, Dr. Dull. I'm scared, too. Has U.S. Made UN Weak? MOSCOW, Idaho — (API—A Borah peace conference speaker declared yesterday that “the United Nations is weak because the United States made it so." Dr. Clyde Eagleton, New York university professor and former state department official, was principal speaker at the opening session of the three-day confer ence. Eighty-two professors and students will take part in the meeting at the University of Ida ho. “I say flatly that we have not contributed what we should have to make the United Nations what we want it to be,” Eagleton said. “Our failure is the chief barrier to peace today. “Our influence at Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco was so great that we could have had any sort of united nations that we wanted, and we deliberately made it as weak as it could be made. He said he had “not a word of defense of Russia. I think that she is also a barrier to peace, and doubtless a far worse one than we are. “But the point is that the American people constitute the first hurdle to be jumped. The United States is the only coun try which could make the United Nations stronger. Russia could not do it if she wanted to; she does not have the moral leader ship, nor the financial and pro ductive strength which com mands respect.” “It is of great concern to us that the Soviet Union be given every opportunity to be a good citizen in the community of na tions and of greater concern that decisions concerning Russia and action, especially military action, should be taken by the commun ity of nations rather than by the United States alone.” Eagleton criticized the “side stepping” of the UN in the Tru man doctrine of aid to Turkey and Greece. He said the North Atlantic treaty was a “necessary step.” The pact should be even stronger, he said. “It is a shocking retrogression on our part to say that it is con stitutionally impossible for us to pledge in advance any use of our armed forces. No system of col lective security can operate effi ciently unless it is known that armed forces will be made avail able when needed. That only con gress can declare war does not mean that the armed forces of the United States cannot be used in any other contingency. No one has brought to trial those who defended the nation at Pearl Har bor before a declaration wa3 made."