A Nasty Taste
A Sample of Eugene Hospitality?
Dear Editor:
At one time in the not too dis
tant past I was a -student in a
university but after being ex
posed to the world, some of the
polish has worn off so that the
language of this letter may be a
hit worldly, but understandable
even to a 2-point student.
Tuesday afternoon, as usual, I
dropped into Piluso's for mail and
meals in a quiet atmosphere usu
ally pervading there, when to my
surprise a U.O. student dropped a
copy of the Emerald into my lap
and opened it to Win Wright’s -
article. For me it was the cessa
ation of the peace and quiet.
I had heard from the students
that haunted Piluso’s nightly
some of the injustices the Negro
students on the campus are sub
jected to, but to see just one of
them do something about it was
really a pleasant surprise and
enough of a push to inspire me to
write of some of my experiences
here in Eugene that have left
such a nasty taste in my mouth.
Upon my arrival in Eugene,
May 8, I was informed that reser
vations had been made for me at
a hotel here. I grabbed a cab and
when I gave him the name of the
hotel, he said, “Lady, I wouldn’t
take you to a place like that. Let’s
try the - hotel.” He procured
a room and came back for my
luggage and a very grateful fare.
When I saw the look of shock
upon the clerk's face upon discov
ering I was a Negro, I smelled a
rat.
The next day I was informed
by the manager with an ingra
tiating smile on his face, af
ter plowing through a labyrinth
of excuses, that my presence was
not wanted.
I discovered that my employer
had tried all the good hotels, bad
hotels and shady hotels for res
ervations and there was only one,
so I had to return to the afore
mentioned one.
Come Sunday and all the good
citizens don their Sunday garb
and assume an expression of pi
ety until they see me proceeding
to the same church. Then some
soul observed that there should
be a “colored” church in the city.
There is a stereotyped, distort
ed idea that exists in the mind of
most people about entertainers
and knowing the enmity toward
Negroes, I maintain a certain
amount of preparedness for situ
ations that might occur, but
the ugliness of this nice placid
looking town is frightening. How
can people keep such poison bot
tled inside them without breaking
out with ulcers or gangrene ?
There are friends I have made
among the students that are
priceless for they have “cush
ioned” some of the bumps I’ve re
ceived from some of the idiotic
yokels of this town, and 'there
have been incidents that have oc
curred which I couldn’t write
without blushing. That perhaps
wouldn’t have happened if I had
been allowed to live like a decent
human being.
Mr. Piluso and quite a number
of the students have asked me to
return. Will I? Would you?
Amanda Ambrose
Entertainer
A Wise Plan?
According to a plan now being devised by the Associated
Women Students, next year's freshmen will be prohibited from
entering into activities for six weeks.
Now, undoubtedly this plan has some merit. It will make
sure that the importance of studies is placed above activities. It
;will see that students know how much they have time for be
fore getting involved in too many things to do.
All this would be fine if it would develop a new generation
of students—this is, real students. But from four years of ob
servation on the life at this school, we would find it more likely
to produce people even more interested in the great pastime of
“soshing.”
Obviously no one is going to spend all his waking hours
studying. Freshmen are famous for their willingness to expend
their energies. Now, with no activities to extend them on, what
can they turn to?
Sure, they can become more proficient more quickly at
bridge. They can get to know the campus meeting places more
intimately. And after six weeks of this kind of orientation,
what will the rest of their college careers consist of?
Many people on this campus have found that the more they
have to do, the better they get everything done. Now this may
not hold true in all cases, but one gets a leisurely attitude to
ward work or studies, it gets harder and harder to break out of
it.
Then, too, there are such activities on the campus as the
YWCA, the Oregana, and the Emerald. Each of these has de
pended largely upon freshmen to carry them through the year.
Under the leadership of older heads, the freshmen get to know
the ropes.
But, as in any job, there is a period of training that must be
undergone before the neophytes produce really good work. If
they cannot begin until midterm time, they would have no real
opportunity to learn the standard procedures before the end
of the term was upon them. The relatively few upperclassmen
would have the whole burden on them.
The Oregana, with its two terms of concentrated work,
would be particularly hard hit. Freshmen would be able to help
only a term and a half. And that isn't long when one is putting
out an All-American book.
If freshmen are to continue electing class officers, there
would be scarcely time enough tor any possible candidates to
show their abilities. Their elections are usually at the begin
ning of winter term. That would give them about five weeks to
show their qualifications.
How would the sophomore honoraries pick their new mem
bers? In the past they have felt the difficulty of selecting their
successors on the basis of only two»terms work. Now this per
iod would be shortened to a term and a half. Any kind of a fail
selection would be just that much harder to make.
The reasoning behind this proposed ruling is apparent.
Surely freshmen should not get themselves entangled in so
many activities that they neglect their studies. But perhaps it
would be better if activities were curtailed instead of pro
hibited.
Some schools have developed a system whereby no one stu
dent can hold too many jobs at once. A system like this would
seem to have more merit than an outright prohibition of all
activities. J.G. , _
The Final Footnote
Columnist Totes Up
Year's Balance Sheet
By Michael Callahan
. The sweet young thing eyed us
speculatively. We winced and got
set to duck the old pitch.
“B u t why,”
she asked de
murely, “would
anyone WANT
to write a col
umn ? What
GOOD does it
do?”
Toting up a
balance sheet
for for the num
berless pages of words, some wit
ty and some far from it, and for
hours upon hours spent over a
sold typewriter, would give an
accountant gray hairs. The debit
column is topheavy, and the
credit side of the picture apt to
be pretty slim. All in all it’s a
tossup what color of ink the an
swer will be.
Our distant cousins in the big
syndicates have a plusher life.
Regular as clockwork some gov
ernment official buys Cadillac
convertibles on a $50 a week sal
lary, or some high army brass
flogs his troops every night be
fore dinner. On a quiet little cam
pus of 5000 disinterested souls,
the scoops are scarcer than big
name bands.
What then, is the footnote
grade for this year of columns ?
The one big achievement that
perhaps made this column worth
while was the statement of policy
that we forced out of a certain
member of the University admin
istration on the question of mu
sic at our dances. For as many
terms as we have been at Oregon,
we have heard the same senti
ments, printable aiid otherwise,
before every campus prom. And
for as many terms of the admin
istration has gone serenely on,
with little notice of the gripes of
student ticket buyers.
We put into print some of the
questions and opinions that we
heard as each new small-potatoes
combo was signed up for us. For
weeks there was nothing but cold
silence, until finally this term the
statement of policy and rather
hasty, explanations began to ap
pear. Nor is the question closed
now, as shown by speeches in the
last campus elections,where big
ger - and better bands were a
plank in every platform.
For so much, at least, we feel
that “Footnotes” has done its
job.
The subjects which somehow
wandered in and out of these
pages are bewilderingly many.
We tried to write the first per
sonal analysis of the “deferred
living” plan by going straight to
Donald DuShane, the key man in
the idea. Then there were the bits
on such odd matters as street re
pairs, the faculty rating plan, the
China river crisis, and so on.
Perhaps the only final measure
of how successful a column is may
be found in the amount of
thought and discussion it pro
vokes among its readers. For this
there is no Oregon Gallup, so the
columnist never really knows. We
can only hope now, at the end of
the year, that our words got a
few laughs and some silent sup
port.
Footnote: We leave to campus
history the question of what
GOOD we have done. It’s safer
that way!
Oregon If Emerald
The Oregon Daily 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
it the post office, Eugene. Oregon.
BILL YATES, Editor VIRGIL TUCKER, Business Manager
Associate Editors: June Goetze, Boblee Bropny, 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
NEWS EDITORS
Chuck Grell, Hal Coleman, Steve Loy, Vic Fryer, Diane Mechara
DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Tom King. Sports Editor Walter Dodd, Feature Editor
Conme Jackson, Women’s Editor Warren Collier, Chief Night Editor
Men's PE Picnic
The men's physical education
picnic will be held at Swimmer’s
Delight today from 4 to 8:30 p.m.
All people in the school of physical
education are invited. It is spon
sored by the Men’s Physical Edu
cation club.
By Red Beard
Back to the old mental cultiva
tion. Farewell to those belated
closing hours. Down the stretch
to final week. Memorial Day
weekend just a memory. Do we
bore you too much with facts ? '
We stayed in the fair city of
Eugene over the weekend and
now it really seems good to see
all the old gang drifting back. No
more to see Taylor’s empty. Once
again to see the library doors
swing open and sorority window
blinds down again.
Football came out with all its
splendor when the green wave
swept over the whites Saturday.
An antiquated sports for May but
we sure enjoyed the gridiron fe
ver it brought on.
The game didn’t seem to take
the dogs by surprise for they were
there, and as per usual, delayed
the encounter while they paraded
across the lime-lined field. No
Van Brocklin on the roster this
year but the many new names in
dicated Saturday that we will
have a lot to root for come au
tumn time.
Thanks to Mr. Holland we now
can travel 121 plus per hour for
500 miles. What’s the speed of
the Crosley’s these days.
Mortar Board comes with Car
penter Saturday. We hope you
Portlanders didn’t spoil the ef
fects for this weekend by drop
ping in on him out at Jantzen.
Rules and regulations for the
week may not affect a few stu
dents for “We gotta put the shoes
on Willie” has not changed to
“We have put the shoes on Wil
lie.”
Carl Greve’s Rose festival win
dow has attracted hundreds of
people in Portland. It shows pic
tures of the Rose court and the
silver patterns they have picked
out. Take a tip from the Rose
Court, girls, and pick your sil
ver at Carl Greve’s too!
Box 215 Newport seems to be
where Kappas* Thetas, and ATOs
congregated over the weekend,
thanks to Martha and Howard. A
good time for a scared hundred!
One of your lovely pictures
turned up in our room the other
day, Zata, thanks a lot. Special
ly for the writing on it. (Paid
Adv.)
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