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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 1951)
Oregon Uciilu . —. __ .EMERALD The Ouegou Daily Emesals it published Monday through Friday during the college year, extent examination and holiday periods, with issues on Homecoming Saturday and Junior \\ cekend Saturday by the Associated Students of the University of t iregon. F.ntered as im c or.d class matter at the poet oSce, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 per school year, per term. •r term. % Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the writer and dp not preveod to represeut the opinions of the ASUO or of the University. Initialed editorials are written he the associate editors. Unsigned editorials written by the editor. Lobma La* son, Editor Abbott Paine, Buair«M Manager Phil Bitten*, Managing Editor Gbetchen Gbondahl, Bill Clotuieb, Don Dewey. Associate Editors Gbetchem Gbkpe, Advertising Manager A Look at the Background There's a lot of talk on campus concerning why Jazz at the Philharmonic wasn’t scheduled by the Student l nion board this year. The group wrote last spring and asked if the school would be interested in a concert. Let’s take a look at the background here. The letter arrived in April. The 1950-51 SU board put de cision on that, and other similar matters, in the hands of the nsw—1951-52—board, since the new budget wasn't drawn up then. So no answer was given last spring. This September the new board chairman, Ralph Hillicr, brought the matter up before the board’s executive committee, composed of the board officers. Because of “unworkable dates” the concert request was dis missed. according.to. Hillicr. The jazz group indicated they prob ably could appear on one of four dates—Oct. 12, Oct. 13, Nov. S or Nov. 14. The Washington game in Portland fell on the October dates. The Robert Shaw chorale group had already been scheduled for Nov. 8 by the Eugene Civic Music asso ciation. That left Nov. 14. The Oregon SU board is playing host to a regional SU conference here Nov. 16 and 17. They felt in capable of handling the jazz concert and preparing for the con clave at the same time. The “no” decision was made by this executive body. 1 lie question was not brought up before this year s entire SU board. Looks to us like a case where more public information earlier would have helped. Had the SU committee told someone per haps the Emerald—they'd turned down the request, other groups interested in hearing the band could have investigated. Hillier said he just didn’t think of this at the time. Enterprising students are trying to secure the group for a concert, at this late date. Their chances^ would undoubtedly have been better with an earlier start. Everything would be much simpler if the original dealings hadn’t been unthinkingly kept in the dark. Give Them an Alternative The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company doesn t mind passing the buck any more than the next guy who grabs hold ul a hot potato. The telephone company has adotped an injured air over the current controversy about installing pay phones at Oregon State and about keeping those already at Oregon. “Why pick on us?” they ask querulously. “We're just the telephone company. The Public Utilities Commission made the ruling about pay phones in public buildings.” That’s right. They did. But the “ruling” is little more than a rubber stamp okay by the Public Utilities Commissioner re garding the proposals made by the phone company when they filed tariffs under which they hoped to operate. The commissioner authorized the phone company to do as it had requested. He could have rejected their proposal if he had felt the people in Oregon were being discriminated against. That's his job. And he didn’t. But the cold fact is that several thousand students at the University and OSC don’t like the ruling whether it came from Alexander Graham Bell or General Harry Vaughan. They can justify their opposition to the pay phones on campus with some pretty good reasons. In order to do so, they must have a public hearing. OSC is calling for tariff revision. We second that motion. It’s time for a change. The telephone tariff which “authorizes” or “requires” pay phones in certain public buildings was approved many years ago. It needs to be redefined. Not the least of our reasons is the manner in which the whole change-over was effected. On at least two occasions this fall, Emerald editors were told by Mr. Eade, manager of the PT&T company, that OSC definitely had pay phones in all campus living organizations. Mr. Eade subsequently denied making any such statement, saying he was misunderstood or misquoted and pointing out that it would be a very foolish thing for him to say under the circumstances. Mr. Eade has diagnosed the situation perfectly. Whether or not the pay phones were installed at OSC is not very important. But the misrepresentation of facts strikes us as being a horse of another color. The telephone company has adopted an injured air over the trving to shove its mandate down the students’ throats on the grounds that it had no other choice according to the PUC ruling. If the PT&T has no alternative it’s time to give them one. They’ve indicated their only wish is to be perfectly legal in all respects. If this isn’t some double talk, a tariff revision per mitting a campus exchange should make everybody happy. • B. C. — Letters to the Editor— Which is the Cabbage? Emerald Editor: In a recent piece of literary criticism published in tbe Em erald, an unusual simile was made. The critic In question spoke of the “Madwoman of Challlot” us striking him "like u bulldozer crunching over a heap of rotten cabbage.” The relationship be tween bulldozer, cabbage, play und critic becomes clearer when we liken the play to the bull dozer ... One can-judge, from the per son's particularly garbled and imperceptfve remarks concerning the play, that he is uniquely qual ified to present this outstandingly asinine type of vituperative. It is regrettable that, for the critic, the most enjoyable ac tivity was that which he observed backstage. Had he been allowed to sit among the audience, in stead of being forced to hide be hind the scenery, his witticisms ( ?) might have been less caustic. Eamon P>. Itarrett Broken Hearts Emerald Editor: I am less and less convinced of the necessity of a free press for which you fight with so much strength: as for myself, I should be satisfied with an objective, a true press which doesn't tell the white and the black, at the same time, as the Daily Emerald of Oct. 30 did. I’ll tell you why: I had a date for the Diamond Jubilee dance of Saturday; but — and here is the heart of the mat ter—you printed, in your issue of Oct. 30, the headline “SU sched ules FRIDAY dance” under which one could read: “A dance . . . will be held SATURDAY . . ."!!! I ask you: what is a paper made for? To provide information or false-true examinations? The result of this was that the girl believing the headline: (It waited vainly for me, Friday eve ning, stigmatizing, of course, the inconsistency of the males. (2) Accepted another date for Saturday evening. As it was too late for me to get another date, I went to the so-called “date and STAG dance” on Saturday (an other fallacy), where half a doz en of lonely boys awaited in vain their solitary preys . . . After such a misfortune, would you be surprised if boys indulge in whisky and other comforting drinks; and would you wonder if, to a free but false press, I prefer a rotten and sold press which gives trustworthy news and which doesn’t imperil the students' sen timental life ? I ask you: how many broken hearts ... ? Jean Boddewyn Joe Banana, 3 to 1 Emerald Editor: In the four year*) that I have been at Oregon, I have never heard of anyone who was killed in a mad rush to get to an all school dnnee. Many couples start out the evening with the Inten tion of going to these dances but just never seem to get there. What incentive Is there to leave that good party in order to pay any price for the privilege of getting a few assorted elbows in the ribs while dancing to the music of "Joe Banana and hia Bunch"? Hardly any, in my esti mation. If the dance floor is crowded, there Isn't even much to be gained by Just listening, lor the music played isn't very original or distinctive in the majority of cases. About the only thing that can be said in its favor is that it might be possible to dance to the music. Why is It that we are always blessed with Joe and his rag time boys at school dances? Three reasons seem to promote the present situation: (I) the In flexibility of the social calendar, (2) the limit set on the price that u hand can he contracted for, (8) because attendance is poor at all-school dances, naturally mon ey would he lost on any higher priced topnotch bund. The social calendar is usually made up in spring for the follow ing school year and presumably the earth would come to an end it any major dance date were changed In order to take advan tage of a really good hand that might be on a Northwest tour at the time. The result in, an an ex ample, that we get AI Donohue and all the resulting moaning about "smutty” entertainment In stead of Ray Anthony, who is one of the beHt bands in the land at the present time, for the "Sopho more Whlskerlno.” Hay corm t<| Eugene only a few days after th<| Whlskerlno and only two niglitj before Friday night and a "dead” weekend, speaking In an all-cain pus sehsc. It can’t Is* said tlml the stu dents that find themselves in charge of dunces don’t try. Thu point Is that their Job Is cut and dried. The dutr Is set In advance and their job Is to get a band—■ any band—that vvIII fit In the schedule and that can he sceiircd within prescribed price. WIiatHiya know ... It's Joe Banana and his Buneli I The only way I ran sec that the situation can be improved ! «| by (1) scheduling the dancer more to fit the band tours of first setting the dates for Ue dance and then settling for a second-rate band and ill) proving to the doubters thut we will turn out to see a good band. If this proves to be too much of a task, we can still go to Oregon State to take in good bands. Ifap Engclbart Oh /4e Screen . . . New Movie Oscar Candidate By Wes Robinson A Flare In the Sun i MacDon ald): Paramount is booming this one for Academy Award consid eration. It's the fascinating, un compromising story of a your.g man trapped by his own lies, based on Theodore Dreiser's “An American Tragedy," starring top flighters, and with a fine director. Paramount has tried to give this one everything. And they have almost succeeded. The story deals with young George Kastman (Montgomery Clift) who comes to work In his uncle's huge industries. He Is re buffed socially by his uncle’s fam ily, and takes up with a pretty but ordinary girl (Shelley Wint ers) who works alongside him. Suddenly he Is promoted, social ite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) falls In love with him, and the world Is rosy. But with all his dreams within reaching distance, a smashing tilow falls. Miss Winters tells him she Is pregnant. Clift lies and cheats trying to worm out, but he finds there is That Time of Year “Betcha ole Prof. Snarf popped a rough quiz in here last period— this room smells like th’ boys’ gymnasium.” no escape. Finally he comes t [ the conclusion that murder i the only solution. What happen, will put you on the edge of your > seats. t’ndoubtedly, this will gel g mil mention at the annual fracas of the Academy of .Motion I’htur Arts and Sciences. This reviewer would Is- willing to give the film two Oscars right now: one to Shelley Winters for the support ing actress, and one to William Mellor for cinematography. For those who stubbornly maintain the motion pleture Isn't art, so • this one. The photoplay will knock you off your feet. But when a person come and says, out and out, this v 1 he the best picture of ltiol, l have to draw up short. The reasons why seem clear enough. In the first place. Direc tor George Stevens was working with a book so big it takes two people to carry it home from the library. Such a book is terrific ally hard to film. The job of con densation has been masterfully handled, but there is still too much happening in too short a space of time. Secondly, there is a trend in dramatic films these days toward underplaying. To be sure, the un derplaying gives the film a screaming intensity at times, but it's also overdone in places. Clift grabs one expression at the begin ing of the film and literally di< s with it. There is a good deal in Elizabeth Taylor's part of the snob, but underplaying cuts the whole thing away until there is nothing left but just a suggestion of what her character is. Mias Winters is the only one that really acts, and often makes everyone else look second-rate. ***** That’s My Boy (Hex): A com edy about a boy who isn't able lo live up to his father’s demands’ that he become a college football star. The story seems contrived oc casionally and sometimes its a little hard to laugh at, because the situation is more pathetic than funny, but Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin manage to come tlirough without skinning their reputations too badly. It's about six notches below "At War With the Army," however. ***** Ited Badge of Courage CMay-1 flower): Another classic of lilj eraturc becomes a film. This iimJ It’s Stephan Crane’s grippii£* Story of the psychological effeJ of war on youth.