'Apple Polishing' a Good Idea
A student-faculty “bull session," sponsored by the Associat
ed Women Students, will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Tuesday in
the Student Union.
AWS calls the informal get-togeher an “Apple Polishing
Party.” There will be no program. No invitations have been
sent out. Refreshments will be served. Students and faculty
members will come and go as they wish. Object of the
“party,” according to AWS, is to develop closer relations
among students and faculty.
We think the idea is a good one and hope that students and
faculty turn out in sufficient number to warrant continuance
of the program.
Any attempt to create closer student-faculty relations
should be encouraged. Much may be gained from the bull
session which cannot be obtained in the classroom. The
AWS plan would permit the interchange of ideas under con
ditions more conducive to free and open discussion than a
crowded lecture room.
At present there are three principal ways in which students
may establish non-classroom contact with faculty members:
(1) Invite the faculty member to dinner at a living organiza
tion ; (2) attend the YWCA faculty firesides or (3) visit in
structors in their offices. The AWS idea adds a fourth and
more informal method.
Some professors encourage students to contact them in
formally. But many do not. We hope that it will not be the
same “student-conscious’’ profs who show up at Tuesday’s
get-together.
Both students and faculty members tend to associate most
closely with persons connected with their educational field.
This is natural and understandable. But students and faculty
should be aware of the advantage of broadening their under
standing of other areas of education. They will have that
chance Tuesday.
The American Boy? He Ain't!
We saw a piece recently in a national magazine describing
the characteristics of “The American Boy.” According to the
article he has even, white teeth, crisp hair, wide spaced eyes, a
lanky, muscular frame, strong, long-fingered hands, a healthy,
well-scrubbed look and a flair for wearing casual clothes.
We were rather interested in the story of “The American
Boy” because we’ve never seen one.
Some of the people we know just miss the. description by a
hairbreadth. Maybe they have limp hair instead of crisp or
their fingers are about half an inch too short. We can’t help
wondering where the author found this perfect specimen.
“The American Boy” is a popular myth. We’ve heard of a
few, like Jack Armstrong and Tom Swift, but they were both
fictional. It’s like looking for the “average” United States
citizen. Yet the idea still persists that the American male youth
is a sort of Adonis in cords.
Manufacturers cling tightly to “The American Boy” tradi
tion.
“The correct college man wears No-Bind Slacks.”
“The American Boy asks for Sweat Cologne.” 1
The American youth plunks down his money. He can’t afford
not to. It’s a tradition.
Illustrators and authors combine all the admirable character
istics found in American youth to create a composite picture,
an American stertotype. It has resulted in a cult of Sameness.
It’s dangerous to be different, to not scramble for the goals
of “The American Boy.”
We’d like to see stories and pictures concerned with Joe
Blow, who doesn’t tVant to be a big-league baseball player but
likes to play the bassoon. Maybe then all men could feel that
they had a boyhood which was somewhat normal.
The thing boils down to this: A bunch of dogma-bound fel
lows are trying to be something that isn’t. “The American
Boy” doesn’t exist.
daily
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Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the writer and do not pretend to
represent the opinions of the ASUO or of the University. Initialed editorials are written by
editorial staff members. Unsigned editorials are written bv the editor.
Larry Hobart, Editor Sally Thurston, Business Manager
Helen Jones, Bill Gurney, Associate Editors
Jim Haycox, Editorial Assistant
Al Karr. Managing Editor
News Editor : Kitty Frassr
Asst. Managing Editors: Judy McLoughlin
Paul Keefe
Sports Editor: Larry Lavelle
Asst. News Editors: Laura Sturges, Jackie
Wardell, Len Calvert.
Wire Editors: Lorna Davis, Andy Salmins,
Virginia Dailey, Valera Vierra
Nat’l Advertising Manager: Carolyn Silva
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Classified Advertising Manager: Beverly
DeMott.
SpiMane Resembles
Comic Book Writer
After McCoy Novel
By Michael Lundy
‘Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye" by
Horace McCoy is a little novel
that makes Mickey Spillane look
like just what he, is a comic
book writer. It has the sex, the
brutality, the crime, the ven
geance theme, and the gripping,
fast-paced writing that holds you
on the edge of your chair until
the last bloody sentence. And
what’s more, it is literature.
The hooks Of Horace McCoy
have just the Impact of speed
ing locomotives as they de
scribe the shadier side of
American life. “They Shoot
Horses, Don’t They” described
in staccato and seemingly un
emotional prose the stark hor
ror of the depression marathon
dance. “No Pockets in a
Shroud” revealed the naivete
of a crusading journalist con
cealed by a mask of worldli
ness and cynaeism. “Kiss To
morrow Good-bye" tells the
story of a brilliant but twisted
criminal.
Intellect Destroys
Ralph Cotter is a man who
uses the intellect which won him
a Phi Beta Kappa key at an im
portant Eastern college to bludg
eon his way to success in the
jungle of crime. The book shows
how the same intellect that
would have enabled him to rise
to the top of any situation final
ly drags him down and destroys
him.
The story is primarily ac
tion, and it has an electric,
charged atmosphere about it.
Passages of brutality and sex
are thrown in like explosions
in the terse narrative. Under
lying the action is the psycho
logical drama of Ralph Cot
ter’s mind, as complex and ter
rifying as “The Lost Week
end.” It is not a moral story,
not a tale for the squeamish or
prudish. The primary element
in it is its shock value. One
feels completely drained of
emotion and humanity after
reading it.
Emotionless Killer
Beginning the book, Ralph
Cotter escapes from a prison
camp with a panicky youth
named Toko, helped by Toko’s
sister Holiday, a tough, lusty
girl who dresses like a man and
wields a sub-machine gun. Dur
ing the escape, Cotter kills Toko
with as little emotion as he
would kill a fly because Toko
might possibly slow him down.
The next day he holds up a
grocery, bludgeoning an old
man to death in the process.
When two crooked cops try to
shake him down, he picks up
the pay-off On a recorder and
neatly turns the tables.
A Million for Marriage
He meets a girl named Mar
garet, the rich and diversion
seeking daughter of the most
powerful man in the state, who
offers him a million dollars to
marry her. But here, apparently
at the top of the heap at last,
brought there by his cold and
emotionless mind, the fatal
weakness within him destroys
him.
Margaret’s white face and
black hair bring up from the
submerged depths of Cotter’s
mind the memory of his grand
mother and a horrible child
hood experience. In danger of
going insane he rejects all
Margaret has to offer. His
life’s end is a bit of irony and
justice less important than the
breaking down of the shell of
intellect which had surrounded
him.
Ralph Cotter is the prototype
of the superman with a fatal
weakness within himself; a mod
ern Achilles. You won’t find any
one like him if you look all your
life, but you will find the ele
ments which make him live deep
within your own mind.
The Battle of the Sexes
“Is my blind date timid or an upperclassman?”
THE TRIESTE QUESTION
It Could Mean Cooperation
By Gunther Barth
DUSSELDORF, Germany
(Special to the Emerald) Ital
ian Premier de Gasperi stayed in
Athens for a four-day official
visit. His trip came while Greece
Turkey, and Yugoslavia are ac
tively negotiating a Balkan de
MARSHAL TITO
fense alliance. The visit of the
Italian premier is aimed at
strengthening economic and poli
tical ties between the two Medi
terranean countries.
Prior to the second World
War, Italy and Greece were on
close economic and political
terms. Both countries have
evidenced desire to restore
close political connections.
In addition, de Gasperi’s visit
may be a move to assure that
Italy is not excluded from any
arrangements that might grow
out of the negotiations among
the three other nations. The
great contrast between Yugo
slavia and Italy about Trieste
would be the bottleneck of a
treaty among the four nations.
Marshal Tito at the time in
vited Yugoslavia's highest
ranking Koman Catholic pre
lates to regularize relations
"between the State and the
Koman Catholic Church within
the framework of the constitu
tion and in connection with the
breaking off of diplomatic re
lations with the Vatican.”
Marshal Tito recently said in
a conversation with journalists
that the representative of the
Vatican in Belgrad systemati
cally prevented a regulation be
tween church and state. His gov
ernment furthermore accuses the
Vatican of depreciating Tito's
reputation in the Western world,
thus increasing the diplomatic
position of Italy in the Trieste
conflict.
The Trieste question could
bring Greece and Italy and
Yugoslavia and the Vatican
together again. The conflict it
self remains to be solved Inde
pendently.
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