Mavbe We'll See Some Action Now Thanks to the efforts of Dave Todd, junior in pre medics, all parties concerned with the future of the millrace are combining on a program to do the most possible now to put the race in good shape. A meeting of students from millrace houses, townspeople, University officials and City Manager Oren King held last month got the plans go ing. Todd, seeking to do something about the stag nant condition of the race, or ganized the meeting. Another meeting was held Thurs day night in the student union. The gates on the upper part of the millrace were partially opened, allowing a fair flow of water which has for a month now' replaced the pre vious stillness. A big cleanup, with stu dents and city w'orkmen par ticipating, is planned for Sat urday, April 18. And a city engineering survey (with en gineers from OSC, even) which will determine what wiH be physically possible in improving the situation is nearing completion. At the same time a com mittee of the ASUO senate is working on the problem, but from a different angle and with less tangible success. Headed by Senator-at-J*arge Mike Lally, the committee figures that the city, judged by past evidence, will not pro vide much support for mill race improvement unless the students show a real interest in using the race. So Lallv's committee is planning a shack on the mill race as a canoing headquar ters. with the University to furnish the manpower for running the place. Houses or private parties will have to provide the canoes. Lally said that he woidd ex pect a cleanup of the millrace sometime this summer. But the cleanup is apparently coming a week from Satur day.* There is certainly justifica tion for thinking that the city needs at least concrete evidence that the students want the full use of the mill race before it will lend a hand. In 1948 the city was to float bonds to match a $20,000 sum to be raised through contri butions from students and townspeople, the total to be used for improving the :-ace. Contributions amounting to some $24,000 were raised, the sum to be used to inst ill a pump at the intake end of the millrace on the Willamette river. It was used instead for work on the banks, prevent ing overflows, and the like, gravity being relied upon for the flow. The bonds were never floated. Since then little has been done on the situation, al though the city isn't solely to blame. Sporadic efforts have been made by student groups, but never to much avail. The real problem of the millrace's stagnancy is one whose solution lies in the fu ture. A five-block long cul vert underneath the highway was installed when the new highway was built, and is too small to allow a fast enough flow of water. Also, a break in the dike at the upper end of the millrace cabses much of the river water to flow.around the intake dam, rather than over it, thus eliminating much of the head of water. Both Of these difficulties will require very' extensive and expensive correction — and that’s why nothing has been done in some five years to put the millrace back onto a fast-flowing, un-polluted basis as it once was, in the days of the Junior Weekend canoe fetes. Another problem, in the opinion of Todd, is the retain er wall on the millrace’s upper end. Togs and debris have torn away much of the wall’s hacking, and if it isn't re pair in time, the walls may erode away. Then there will be no millrace of any kind, Todd said. Of course, there are the problems of a polluted race i,which w ill probably be cor rected when Springfield’s jhw sewage disposal plant— to he completed within a year —replaces dumping of sew age into the Willamette river) and other relatively minor de fects in the millrace channel. But the three-point pro gram worked out by Todd’s group—students, townspeo ple, University officials S. W. Little, Orville Lindstrom anti , 1. I. Wright, City Manager Oren King Barks and Recrea tion Superintendent Tex Matsler, Millrace Improve ment chairman Kieth I'enneH will do much to provide a better race. The water is now flowing fairly well—and the four gates can be opened further, Todd says. The bottles and other debris in the bed of the millrace will be cleaned outr and tlic engineering survey , may provide a long-range so lution. ' * Lally’s committee, more * than a year old (though mil headed by Lally that long), may provide the student in- ” terest angle. It has operate*! with a somewhat passive ap- . proach, but after little success ‘ with the city. The city is evi dently providing real'help.-in * cooperation with Todies, group. Although the senate was* skeptical about the extent city cooperation, a more ag gressive program might have produced the same kind of re sults that Todd's program a^>~* pears to be getting. (We eall - it " I odd’s" program merdh for convenience, realizing trr various parties involved.) Tin - senate would have done mu*Ji to justify its work by driving hard on such a problem* a- * the millrace. All that aside, we wcyiffl. suggest that Lally’s commip tee coordinate its plana wlw! Todd’s program, and thatltll* students interested in gettiiw the best possible millrace set up back the program at fur - ther meetings and the Apjti 18 cleanup, as well as developments.—(A.K.) • * Numerous Variations on the Theme of Spring It is now spring, in spite of Nature’s rather unsportsmanlike reluctance, and time for the an nual intense drive on the part of the student body to flunk out of school. The Primrose Path of Dal liance begins somewhere along Thirteenth Street and continues out in the general direction of the River, and with a little more sun it will probably experience quite a traffic jam. We have been contributing to our spring term delinquency in no more serious manner than eyeing, with more embarrassment than pleasure, the covers on paper bound books sold in campus busi ness establishments. It is not that we have just discovered this form of art, or are so naive to think that the interiors correspond with the covers. It is just that this type of tiling seems to be an insult to the intelligence and dignity of the American people, or some awesome group like that. These covers, or at least an amazing percentage of them, dis With Wisdom Comes Practicality THE HOWE ECO TEACHER f AT — -1 SCH AT l The Oregon Uaily Emerald published Monday through Friday during the college year except Jan. 5; Feb. 23; Mar. 2, 3, 5, 9, 10 and 11; Mar. 13 through 30; June 1, 2 and 3 by the Student Publications Board of the University of Oregon. Entered as second class matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 "per school year; $2 per term. 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. Editorials are written by the editor and the members of the editorial staff. Jim Haycox, Editor Ron Brown, Business Manager by bob funk play wondrously formed women posed about in general disarray. This would be all l ight, or at least truthful, if the books were all about wondrously formed women standing about in disarray. How ever, the books may be anything from Everybody's Handy Pocket Dictionary to Gardening Made Easy. This type of book with that type of cover is a fraud and a come-on. Besides, it is monotonous. Not all of the women in a!I of the books can possibly look like that, and surely in just a couple of books they are fully clothed at least a certain amount of the time. If there is a female mentioned in the book, it will be she, wear ing nothing much more than a provocative smile, who graces the cover. If Alice in Wonderland were to be made available in a pocket edition, Alice would be pictured, probably, in a negligee open at various places, smiling congenially (at least) at someone of the opposite sex (the March Hare ?). There would be a caption “She was a small time girl until she fell suddenly into the undei - world, where life i3 an orgy of teas and croquet matches, and a girl has to watch her step . . The trend, we realize, is against us, and for the pocket book cov ers. This is called progress. * * * The birds are back from wherever the birds were, and any number of different kinds of flowers and insects have bloomed and hatched, respec tively. Some cf the more com mon species to be seen on cam pus this spring: The North American Cross Eyed Sprinklersetter. Habitat: campus sidewalks. This interest ing member of the animal king dom hibernates during the winter in the physical plant, comes out spring term in a big way. Prob ably under the impression that he is yards out in the middle of the quad, the sprinklersetter sets springlers in such out-of-the-way places as the steps of Friendly, all available sidewalks leading from the co-op to anyplace else, and the front walk of the stndent union. Rumor has it that an espe cially large sprinkler is going to be set in the square in front of Commonwealth. Just watch. The Inveterate Bottleopener. Habitat: up the McKenzie, ins tinctive features: a bottle-open er grafted to the right hand, a bottle in the left. This species is thriving, although a number of them have fallen into the river and drifted down to sea. The Honorary Tapper. Habi Lat The Junior Weekend picn s Very little to be said about t| i one except once tapped by' i r honorary tapper you are an h« * orary tapper yourself, so dofl make any sneering remarks. The Leering Stdpsittcr. H tat: Fenton Hall. This bird pe; es out in the sun and eompa the cotton dresses of the class' 1954 with the cotton dresses the class of 1955. There are wo( kinds of birds to be. The Spring Term Scholar:'$ tinct. The College Crowd-$ \ _Campus Headlines Elsewhere .■! By Rae Thomas The sharpshooting Idaho wom en's rifle team unceremoniously beat the Army KOTC squad by a one-point margin. The final score was 96S for the ladies, 967 for the men. 1000 is the highest possible score in a five-man match. A Miss Cates headed the match by shooting 198 out of her pos sible 200. * * * In Tennessee was seen a boy who took no chances on anyone swiping his bike while he was in class. The fellow took the handle bars off the bike and put them in his locker. * * * Oscar Levant will be at OSC on April 18th. A “thrifty” fellow at Cornell was fined $25. He didn’t want to pay for new license plates for his car, so he painted his old ones over in the new color. * * * A history professor at UCLA declares, “I don’t mind much kids coming in late. I don’t mind too much when kids leaved But I do mind when the kids coming in late meet the kids going out early.” :J» :Jc -Jfi “Chew for Charity” has begun at UCLA. Bubble gum can be bought from student salesmen in classrooms and on the Quad. The gum is five cents for two pieces or three cents apiece. Gum chew ing in classes this week has been sanctioned by department heads. Oh, goodie. * A student, tired of comp’ali. at the University of Washing* that there was not enough soki> spirit at basketball games, acii asked, “How do you expect sonf one to yell and cheer when theijj. a psychology professor beside lie taking notes on mob behavior*^, * * * 1, From “The University of WgA ington Daily” An economics. 3 jor with a four point grade i > erage who wanted to get in ; more exciting field” had his v, 1 granted this week. Robert Girard, who wilP |( graduated this June, passed#?< difficult Harvard law school* {! mission test with an unnsuaj high score. He ranked among1 top two per cent of the 2bt * students who have taken thc“t i since 1947. v • The teat is used as an a