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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1949)
The Coming Elections Why We're Neutral Representatives of both campus political organizations have approached the Emerald editor with questions regarding his policies toward the coming ASUO elections. The editor believes there can be but one answer to such queries: The Emerald will remain neutral, of course. Here’s why: As the sole newspaper on the campus, the Emerald must be the voice of ALL students; not the tool of a small knot of cam pus politicians. It must attempt to guide and reflect the thoughts of ALL its readers. It cannot follow willy-nilly the petty bickering and back-room antics of a couple of dozen “pol iticans” and hope to maintain the confidence of the students who recognize campus politics for what it is—a farce. The editor must guard vigorously against any and all at tempts by campus pressure groups to “capture” him or his staff for personal reasons or selfish motives. On the editor’s shoulders is the responsibility of steering his newspaper along a course which cuts through all social and political lines. If student government on this campus one day graduates from its infancy, it will then become the duty of the Emerald to assume a more positive interest in campus politics. How ever, until the dawn of that joyous day, the Emerald must not become degraded by allowing itself to be used as a political football. Why do we feel so strongly about this neutrality? Last year the Emerald departed from a policy of neutrality to aid in the formation of a coalition party. Justification for this was based on the supposition that campus politics and student government could be raised to a higher level by a party composed of both Greeks and Independents. What effect did this crusade have on the Emerald? Plenty. Campus politics became entangled in the Emerald machin ery. All year the editor has fought to keep the political foot thrust into the Shack last Spring from breaking down the door, i i The battle has not been easy—nor completely successful. Staff tensions have at times arisen as a result of having had politics so close1} connected with the Emerald. These tensions have been further magnified by outside pressures. __ It is extremely difficult for an editor to keep his house in or der in the face of such discord. In the hope, therefore, that he can pass on to his successor a newspaper free from outside pressure and meddling, a news paper which has the respect of all students, and a newspaper staffed with journalists, not politicians, the editor this year will insist upon a policy of strict neutrality for the ASUO elections both in the news columns and on the editorial page. China 'Incidents' ' With the battle arena of the j Chinese civil war moving into the Yang'tze-kiang valley area, the possibility of incidents involving western powers becomes greater. Already, four ships of the British navy have been engaged in fight ing the Chinese Communists. There is a strong similarity be tween the situation in China today ; as the Kuomintang and Chinese j Communists fight for control of | central China and the situation in 1927 when the Kuomintang, then the revolutionary army, was driv j ing the legal but inept Peking government forces from this area. The Kuomintank was closely allied to Soviet Russia. As part of a revolutionary program, it was intensely nationalistic and anti-imperialistic. It had drawn popular support to its banners by its denunciation of the unequal treaties that had insured a pre ! ferred position for western pow ■ ors in China. Consequently, the Kuomintang, at that time, posed a threat to lives and property of foreigners in China. When the armies of Chiang K’ai-shek reached Nanking, for eigners there were attacked, with some loss of life, by Chinese sol diers. The identity of the attack ore was never clearly established but it was generally believed they were Kuomintang men. The foreign colony collected itself on Socony hill in Nanking. A flotilla, composed chiefly of British and American naval units, lay down a barrage between Socony hill and the Kuomintang army while a rescue was effected. By 1928. Chiang K'ai-shek had purged from the Kuomintang its Communist elements atid much of the revolutionary ideloogy. The western powers consequently gave the Kuomintang legal rec ognition and the Nanking affair was settled. Today, in China, a revolution ary army is again pressing on Nanking. Again it is Russian in fluenced and again one of its pri mary revolutionary themes is anti-imperialism. Foreign naval units still patrol the Yangtzse kiang, a material symbol of the special position held by western powers which the Chinese Com munists are pledged to eliminate. In the general disorder that ex ists in central China, the scene is laid for incidents duplicating the Nanking affair of 1927 and the Amythest incident of 1949. This time there is little likeli hood that the anti-imperialistic stand of the Chinese revolutionar ies will change. A Communist victory will pose a threat to the (Please turn lo page seven) From Our Mailbag Letters to the Editor CONGRATS To the Editor: Accept my congratulations! The letter regarding sorority girls from the “Abolitionists,” Emerald April 20, or rather the publishing of the letter indicates to me that one of two things has occurred in the Emerald office: (1) Our daily publication is com ing of age (Thank God); (2) You were short on material. At any rate enroll me as a member of the “Abolitionists.” Yours for an “honest” eeditor ial page, W. D. Braucker OVERLY CRITICAL To the Editor: Recently, there has been much criticism of coeds in letters to the editor. Some of these adverse comments have perhaps been jus tified, but I think that as a whole, they are overly critical. For instance, the oft-heard comment that girls come to col lege only to snare a husband. What’s so wrong with that? Doesn’t a man continually strive to better himself? The only an swer is yes, so why condemn a girl if she seeks a mate in the one place where there is a chance of getting the best? In justification of the state ment that sorority girls turn into snobs, I can only say that I haven’t been out with many as yet, so I can’t speak from ex perience. But I do know that they are far more pleasant company than a girl who has never been to college. I have been twice married, and have crowded a lot of living into the last fifteen years (I am 32 now), and if I ever am foolish enough to seek a third helpmeet, I’ll certainly pick a gal with some formal educa tion. I will say that I think it a shame that more girls do not go to college for the full 'four years, instead of dropping out at the end of two; if only because they meet so many different kinds of people. I do not have the figures available (pun intended), but very few girls, of the many en tering, go the full four years to college, the usual reason for drop ping being the desire for mar riage. Is that bad ? And if you guys think that women are stupid, just try to get someone to feed and clothe you, and give you money when you ask for it, as wives do. Sincerely, Robert P. Currin THE GALS’ SIDE To the Editor: Are the “abolitionists” really right? Come now!! I can’t see being that strong. You fellows judged all the girls by the worst of them. I’ll go along with you as far as to say that some of them are so icky that their lan guage runs out like molasses through an atomizer, but these girls are a minority. I know the type of girl you are talking about. I see her every day. She is the freshman, or per haps even the sophomore, who grew up in one of Oregon’s small towns, and who has never been south of the Siskiyous or north of the Columbia river. That girl Wild Notes By Fred Young This Sunday, April 24, at 2:30 in the University theater the first of what might well become a se ries of “Sound Experiments” will be offered to the interested pub lice. The first production of its type to be offered on the Univer sity campus, this Educational Ac tivities feature should hold uni versal appeal. To clear up the mistaken con ceptions held by some, this con -cert does not into to “jazz up” the classics. Nor, will it try to show any particular approaching fusion between jazz and the long hair. Its simple purpose is to showcase small ensemble music. (There will be nine musicians taking part.) We want to arouse and satisfy the interests of as many music lovers as possible. Some might denounce the idea of playing Beethoven and Bach within a few breaths of Dixie land and bop. But, let us reas sure you that the program has been planned with the ultimate of good taste in mind. A Sunday concert of Sunday concert caliber. In reference to the quality of the music to be played, here is an interesting sidelight. In the em bryonic state this program was going to be solely a jazz produc tion. The tide of bebop jazz now flooding the country seemed to merit a campus bop performance for the increasing number of those interested in it. • And since a few musicians at tending school with us are more proficient in this jazz idiom than any others in this region, it seemed like we might have a very enjoyable jazz at the Little Thea ter affair. But, when approached these fellows said they’d like to include some serious things in the concert. So they selected a few more men from the music school and are practicing for a very adequate presentation of the classics. In fact, the program indicates that the jazz will take a back seat to the classical interpreta tions. Included among the jazz ideas presented will be a quantity of that ancient Dixieland, John Kirby and Benny Goodman com bo arrangements, and some ad vanced bebop. The concert program will be pronted in tomorrow’s paper along with a list of the partici pants. There are 200 seats avail able in the University theater, and tickets are now on sale at the Educational Activities office in McArthur court. has a hard battle to fight; grow ing up in some of the Oregon towns isn't easy. She has literally come “out of the woods" and has now joined a sorority. Her first i thought is "How shall I act; how shall I show those around me I am a sorority girl?” This leads to all kinds of complications in her little mind. After many hours of deep thought she comes up with the idea that being at the University of Oregon makes her almost a debuntante and thus she must be sophisticated. She remembers some movie or story character acting the part of a sorority girl or worldly woman. She decides that if she changes the pitch of her voice just a lit tle and is careful not to use slang or the words of the comman man to express her most profound thoughts, she will convince every one that she isn’t really a small town girl. She thinks that to be really appealing she must keep the boys at a teasing distance by talking about subjects of which she knows nothing. Can’t you “abolitionists” rea lize that the first year or two of college is just a stage in the life of these girls? Boys go through stages too. Remember when you were in high school, not so very long ago ? Everything you did was backwards; you were all arms and legs; and you just couldn’t look graceful. Just as that time in your life affected your personalities, this stage af fects the personalities of the girls about whom you wrote. After a year or two they’ll change and become almost adult. I find some of the junior and senior girls in teresting individuals with real personalities. The younger ones will come out of it just as soon as they realize that a sorority member isn’t any better than anyone else. Anyway, men, you should be old enough to choose one of the many girls who are not affected. You can’t expect a girl of 18 or 19 to act older just because she is in college; she just doesn’t know how. My advice to you is to leave the little ones alone. Leave them for fellows who are still young enough in their ideas to appre ciate them. There are some won derful juniors and seniors in so rorities. I know. I married one of them. (Name withheld) P.S. As for those sweet high school girls you wrote about, you would soon grow tired of their giddy ways and scatterbrain chatter, though it seemed charm ing for one weekend. Remember they are in a stage too! Oregon W Emerald The Oregon Daii.y Emerald, published daily during the college year except Sundays, Mondays, holidays, and final examination periods by the Associated Students, University of Oregon. Subscription rates: $2.00 per term and $4.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. BILL YATES, Editor VIRGIL TUCKER, Business Manager Associate Editors: June Goetze, Boblee Brophy, Diana Dye, Barbara Heywood Advertising Manager: Cork Mobley BOB REED, Managing Editor Assistant Managing Editors: Stan Turnbull, Don Smith BOB TWEEDELL, City Editor Assistant City Editors: Ken Metzler, Ann Goodman m DEPARTMENT EDITORS Tom King, Sports Editor Walter Dodd, Feature Editor Connie Jackson, Women's Editor Warren Collier, Chief Night Editor NEWS EDITORS Chuck Grell, Hal Coleman, Steve Loy, Vic Fryer, Diane Mechara UPPER BU8INESS STAFF I£ve Overbeck, Nat’l Adv. Mgr. Bill Lemon, Sales Mgr. Leslie Tooze, Ass't Adv. Mgr. Tack Schnaidt, Ass’t Adv. Mgr. Donna Brennan. Ass’t Adv. Mgr, Rae Evans, Ass’t Adv. Mgr. Joan Munnauffh—Assist. Business Manager