Alore Snow Showers . . .
• . . arc predicted for today. lUgli
temperature, about 37 degree*.
Ijih, 30.
Volume I.Ill
m
daily
EMERALD
* err at
first year oj Publication
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1952
Frosh Elections . . .
• . . w ill be held W ednesday. A
sample ballot appear* on Page &.
NUMBER C3
Students Rally to Fight Pay Phones
------ - See Story, Columns 4 & 5
Wright Opens
Religion Session,
Asks Questions
By Larry Hobart
What are you? What is the uni
veritc ?
These were the questions posed
^Sunday night by the Rev. I'aul S.
\Vright, Presbyterian leader, in
the opening address of the four
day Parliament of World Relig
ions.
Reverend Wright urged his audi
ence of more than 300 persons
gathered in the Student Union
ballroom to ask themselves these
questions as they participate in
the parliament.
"Religion starts when you ask
ultimate questions." Mr. Wright
declared. "The world today is suf
fering from a gigantic anxiety
complex. We must tackle the mess
we’re in through religion."
"Human convulsions wars, rev
olutions snd unrest have taken
rncn to the foundations of their
lives," the religious doctor assert
e/'/.-ate turn In tnnr nnhll
Prof. Mills Dies
Of Heart Attack
Randall V. Mills, assistant pro
fessor of English, died suddenly
Friday afternoon from a heart at
tack.
Mr. Mills had been on the staff
of the English department since
1938. He was 44.
An authority on folklore and
Western American transportation.
Professor Mills hail written exten
sively in this field. He was the
author of two books on Northwest
transpartation, "Sternwheelers Up
the Columbia" and "Railroads
jyown the Valley" published in
1951.
He also contributed to many
periodicals including Wester n
Folklore and American Speech.
Founded Folklore Group
Deeply interested in Oregon his
tory and folkways. Mr. Mills was
founder and first president of the
the Oregon Folklore society form
ed in Eugene last October.
He was named chairman of the
Oregon committee for the collec
tion of proverbial sayings of the
American Dialect society in 1947
and in 1948 was made director of
the Pacific Northwest for the so
icety. ^....
-Professor Mills had been sched
«w uled to address the Rocky Moun
tain Folklore conference next July
in Denver.
In 1949 he was appointed asso
ciate editor of Western Folklore
. and was also named associate ed
itor of Steamboat Bill of Facts
that year.
I OIH'CICU r OIK MUSIC
Mr. Mills collected folk music,
literature and art work, much of
which is now housed in the Uni
versity library.
He was a member of the Philo
logical association of the Pacific
coast and the Modern Languages
association.
Pursuing his interest in folk dia
lects, Mr. Mills spent time locating
origins of Lane county place
names. His studies led to the trac
ing of influences responsible for
speech patterns unique to the Wil
lamette and Columbia river val
(Please him to /'aye seven)
CdUotUat,,,
IT’S YOUR MOVE
You re put ini; a dime today . . . and every day from now on unlrsti
you get rid of I ho pay phonrs.
Ion want action. And to know in what direction to channel that
action you muni know whether your administration is going to openly
lawk your efforts to rid yourselves of an unfair financial burden—
the 10-cent phone call—or remain, as they have so far, noncommittal.
lie know some members of our administrative faculty are behind
us 100 per cent. We wonder about the other*.
lie, the students, want to know where you, our administration,
stands. Ar:d vie want Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, the public
utilities commission and the people of the State of Oregon to know, too.
Only when you, the administration, officially and not “off-the-record"
state that you feel the imposition of pay telephones upon the students
is grossly unjust, will we feel you have done your part. Then . . . and
only then . . . will we know' what to do next.
This is a matter for student-administration cooperative action. To
gether we must fight.
We may not he fighting only for ourselves, you know. The phone
company justified their action here by saying OSO already had the
phones. Couldn't they easily say to Washington or Idaho or Montana:
"Well, they have pay phones in Oregon.”
Letters to Emerald
Demand Action;
Committee Meets
By Jim Haycox
le tter- protesting t!.t- pay telephone situation poured into
the Oregon Daily Kmerald office-'- over the weekend.
fodiscuss the present telephone situation and means ot'
carrying out the ASUO senate’s mandate of Thursday evening,
the Oregon phone committee will meet today at d jam. in the
Student Union.
Alumni Attorneys Will Help
Meanwhile, it was learned Sunday that several alumni at
torneys believed Oregon has "a good case" against the Pacific
I elephone and Telegraph company.
The senate overwhelmingly pa-sed a motion Thursday to file
a formal protest with the Public Utilities commission and con
tact the governor ot the state, Oregon newspapers and the
school administration for help.
At the same meeting senators approved a move to withdraw
from circulation a P.T.&T. proposal for an intra-campus tele
p m m a w
CARSON
:
“I
Mill don't think you're Retting even with the telephone company, Mort.”
pnone cxcr.ange and voted to givo
the phor.e committee full support,
secretarial, financial and legal.
Hading Reports
Dick Hading, chairman of the
committee, said Sunday that some
publicity information had already
been released to Oregon newspa
pers through the University's new:*
bureau.
He also stated that Oregon
State college, presently battling
with P. T. & T. over the possible
installation of pay phones in fra
ternities and sororities on that
campus, would welcome joint ac
tion with Oregon. < One senator
said Thursday that OSC did not
want interference from Oregon be
cause OSC would not consider an
intra-campus exchange as a com
promise. i
OSC Lawyers
'We can also get help from law
yers hired by OSC and the OSC
Co-operative managers associa
tion,'' he said. “OSC wants us with
them all the way. The idea that
they don't is mistaken."
Hading also said OSC had con
tacted or had attempted to contact
Gov. Douglas McKay already.
“The situation is entirely differ
ent here (than at OSC»," he ex
plained. "We have co-ops and dor
Please turn to page seven)
TELEPHONE TROUBLES BEGAN LAST SPRING
(Ed. Note: In order to pre
sent the complete picture of the
pay telephone situation since its
beginning, the Emerald is run
ning a two-day series on the de
velopment of the situation. The
following is the first of the ser
ies, covering events up to the
time immediately preceding the
meeting held in Salem in Decem
ber to discuss the problem.)
By Al Karr
First public indication that the
Pacific Telephone and Telegraph
company was going to install pay
telephones in University living or
ganizations came late last spring
term with an announcement by the
company.
The pay phones would have
! come earlier, the company said,
, but lack of equipment held up the
I installation. PT & T told the Uni
i versity two years ago that pay
phones were bound to come.
Previously Planned
A confidential report from a
sourse closely connected with the
situation had previously indicated
that the telephone company had
been seriously considering putting
in the phones for more than a year
prior to the actual installation and
the action was-liable to be taken
at any time if students abused long
distance regulations.
(When dormitory telephones
were on the I’niversity switch
board exchange last year long-dis
tance calls could not be made from
a dorm through the board. The
company said such calls had to be
made through the downtown fa
cilities.)
Matter Allowed to Slide
The delicate situation continued
until last spring—then came the
company's decision. A howl went
up among students informed of
the proposed move. Some plans
were made to confer with the com
pany's Eugene offices, about the
proposal, but somehow the plans
never came off, and the matter
was allowed to slide.
The telephone company was
busy, however, and installed the
pay phones in all fraternities, so
lorities, dormitories, and wom
en's co-operatives during vaca
tion. When students returned to
school fall term, they found tele
phones with new numbers (begin
ning with 5-9) and new charges
(an added five cents per call) for
personal calls. Business calls were
to be made on non-pay phones
(generally only provided in frater
nities and sororities!.
Installation Based on Tariff
PT & T's basis for installing the
pay phones was a more than 20
year old tariff ruling, originally
requested of the state Public Utili
tise commission by the company,
and subsequently filed by PUC. (If
the commission files a tariff re
quest, it constitutes approval, in
effect.)
Three extracts from this PUC
regulation provides the specific au
thorteation for the installation, ac
cording to PT & T interpretation.
These extracts state:
1. Public service (pay phones)
will be furnished in semipublic and
public locations. (PT & T considers
fraternal living organisations, dor
mitories and co-ops in this classifi
cation. )
2. Flat rate service (non-pay
phones) is not provided on public
or semipublic premises where
phones are accessible to the public
in general.
3. Public -or semipu’olic places- -
when private phones are used by
the public and such establish
ments as rooming houses, hotels,
and apartment houses are to have
ternities and sororities, and does
not.
semi-public coin box service upon
request.
So the pay phones were instal
led. Some dormitories previously
had pay phones, but flat rate
phones were also available, the
coin box service available when
the regular phones were in use.
Now neatly all living organiza
tions (except the men's co-ops)
had one. two, or three pay phones;
some also had a flat rate phone for
business calls.
Every one’s Misinformed
When Louis Eade. local man
ager of the PT & T, was contact
ed by the Emerald, he said Oregon
State college had pay phones in its
dormitories, fraternities, and so
rorities. and Oregon was just next
in line. Administration officials
said they were told the same thing.
But. as it turned out, OSC did r.ot
have the coin box service in fra
(Fu’cise turn to [•age three)