HERALD
ImhII la piMilirf Mwfcr Aroogfc Friday total the
: 3, exact* Nor. 46, 25 4hf»««h M, Dec. 7 thnrafh *, 11 tin
12 tbroosta 29. May 3, and 31 ttan«k Jane 2. with iaanca
by tha Stadaat Pnt>lica|i«ia Board of too VnircnUy of I
Not Like It Used To Be
We heard an ASUO senator remark the other night that this year’s
'senate “isn’t like the old senates.” We agree.
• This senator was referring specifically to length of the meetings.
“Thdy don’t last so long as they used to,” he contended.
But this year’s senate is different in other respects too. Its members
attend meetings, and they make good grades.
. Fall term the senate GPA was a 3.206, with 17 senators ranking
•above a 3.00. That average is far above the all campus average of
2.5173 and the highest average of 2.90 made by Orides. For that we
congratulate the senate members, most of whom had other activities
also.
And senators come to meetings this year. Of the 30 persons who
served winter term, 21 had perfect attendance. Only one senator
missed three meetings and one missed two.
This presents quite a contrast to last year’s senate whose members
often had trouble getting even a quorum attendance.
In the April 13, 1953 Emerald an editorial commented that an av
erage of 15.6 per cent of the senate was absent during each meeting
and that two senators had missed five meetings.
This, of course, was during spring term when even’ activity has
personnel problems. But, after all, we don’t consider the senate “any
activity.” If student government is to have any importance at all,
it has to be ranked as more than that. This year’s senate seems to
realize their responsibilities—at least we hope they do.
And, although we congratulate them, we caution the senators not
to fal into a “spring term lethargy”—it’s easy to do, even in winter
term.—(J.W.)
Senior Meeting A Success
We were pleasantly surprised Tuesday.
Seniors have a standing reputation as some unique type of creature
who “just couldn’t possibly he interested in anything on campus,” we
all mentally turn the seniors “out to pasture” and disregard them as
part of our campus population.
But Tuesday afternoon, approximately 150 seniors drifted over to
Commonwealth for the first meeting of the class of ’54 since their
freshman days (when they were probably much younger, more eager
and naive.)
At times, no one seemed actually sure what to do with the meeting.
There was a little awkwardness. But on the whole, the seniors carried
on their meeting much like other people. They elected permanent
class officers, heard a lot of announcements, discussed the senior ball,
and planned a senior picnic. And they showed interest.
To us, 150 seniors interested in something is heartening. We’d like
to take our bow to the class officers who planned that meeting in the
face of the “we all know nobody will come” attitude that prevails in
the field of seniors and too many other campus activities.
The Sly One
“I put a desk at both ends of th’ classroom—Confuses heck out'of those
students who always sit on th’ back row.**
-The Looking-Glass
Arthur Miller Rated High
Among Social Dramatists
By Toby McCarroll
Emerald Critic
Judging from figures of the
publishing houses many more
people are beginning to read
plays. This is particularly for
tunate for at least one reason,
several “social dramas" have ap
peared in recent years fcrhich ex
press ideas too great to be con
veyed only to that relatively
small number, who see produc
tions of a play.
In many people's estimation,
and certainly my own, Arthur
Miller is our foremost social dra
matist. There is a question as to
whether he is primarily attemp
ting to. convey a “message,’’ or
Is primarily presenting a drama.
A third view is that the creation
is united to such an extent it
could never be so divided. Al
though this problem is germane,
I do not feel I have the time or
certainty of mind to explore it
further here.
The 48 year old playwright's
first successful f.
play (his sec
ond on broad
way) was per
formed in 1947. t
This play," “All? *
My Sons,” is;
concerned with
the moral code
of our indust
rialists. This
moral code
permitted an or
I
uinary, average Dusmessman to
commit a crime and allow an in
nocent employee to go to prison
for it.
The act itself consisted of sell
ing cracked engine heads to the
army which resulted in the death
of 21 men. And why did he do
it ? “I’m in business . . . you get
a process, the process don’t work
your out of business . . . You lay
twenty years into a business and
they knock you out in five min
utes » . . I never thought they’d
install them.”
"Death of a Salesman” came
In 1949. Miller recently said
of the principle chacter, “Wil
lie Loman never knew what he
stood for. He took his shape
from things pressing in on him,
and he lost his identity.” Nei
ther of these plays carry the
implication that the activities .
portrayed are inevitable but
that they can very possibly
arise under the standard of
values we. have set for our
9*t
...0« KWAX
THURSDAY—
6:00 p. m. Sign On
6:03 Piano Moods
6:15 Four for a Quarter
6:30 News Till Now
6:45 Sports Shots
7:00 University Hour
8:00 Patrioscript
8:15 UN Story
8:30 Serenade to the Student
9:00 Kwaxworks
10:00 The SU and You
10:30 News Headlines
10:55 Tune to Say Goodnight
11:00 Sign Off
§ The Alpine club will meet at
4 p.m. today in the Student Union.
0 Hillel will hold its regular
meeting tonight in the Student
Union, according to Howard Suss
man, president. Room number will
be posted, and Paul B. Means,
head of the religion department,
will speak, with a discussion period
following. Everyone is invited to
the meeting, Sussman said.
selves; that standard of values
that sets goals above what a
Willie can obtain, and make Im
portant the artificial superfid
alftles of life
In January this year "The
Crucible” was presented. This
play might well prove to be one
of the greatest of its kind in our
age. The plot involves the Salem
witchhunts and executions. The
original accusation of some girls
grew to tremendous proportion,
motivated by fear and revenge.
Suspicion became normal.
Men admitted witchcraft in or
der to escape hanging. Small in
cidents were taken out of con
text and made the cause of con
victions. The main emotion of the
episode was frustration. An hon
est thinking man could not take
the easy road and escape injury
by admitting things he did not
do or accusing those he did not
see, nor could he explain the ut
ter stupidity of the situation to
the authorities; but one fact
was certain, he or friends of his
were caught in this giant web
and sentenced to die.
The meaning of this play Is,
of course, universal and has
bearing on such events as the
Spanish Inquisition or the
French Revolution, but parti
cular and Inescapable referen
ces are drawn to the present
day operations of our McCar
thy's and Veldes. It becomes In
creasingly apparent that we
cannot meet this sweeping tide
of American grown totalitar
ianism rationally.
Logic has little effect upon the
cliche spouting fanatic, but a
play of this* sort might affect
him. The "Cult of Loyalty” now
dictates a single goal and a
single method. The power of the
cult has grown so far out of pro
portion that we can no longer
merely laugh at its ridiculous
ness but must design some meth
od of attack or resign ourselves
to virtual intellectual slavery.
Arthud Miller has given us one
weapon in “The Crucible."
1
Letters.*. |
...to the Editor
Emerald Editor:
We would like to express our
thanks to the students for their
cooperation in reviving tradition
al Oregon spirit. We owe special
thanks to John Bigelow and the
Oregon pep band, the spirited
men's white shirt section, and
the women's section, which was
even better than usual.
We hope that this entusiasm
continues and that we have a
representation at Corvallis this
weekend worthy of last week
end’s fine showing.
Sincerely,
Tom Gaines
Earl Culbertson
Stan Savage
CAMPUS BRIEFS
0 Dr. William Burroughs, psy
chiatrist at the Oregon State hos
pital in Salem, will be tha guest
speaker at the meeting of the
House Chaplains tonight at 6:30
in the Student Union, according
to Jo Hutchon, chairman of the
steering committee of the organi
zation.
0 The student affiliate of the
American Chemical society in
sponsoring movies on copper and
recent improvement in medical re
search at 7:30 tonight in Science
16. All interested students are in
vited to attend.
0 Sigma Delta PI, Spanish hon
orary, will hold an informal open
meeting at 7 p. m. today in Audio
Visual Studio A in the library
basement. New slides of Mexico
and "Your State Higher Educa
tion" will be shown to all members
and any interested Spanish stu
dents, V. Gwen Paugh, president,
has announced.
0 “The Cathedral of Chartres,” |
15-minute sound motion picture,
will be shown at 9 and 11 a. m. to
day in Architecture 138. Visitors
and non-architecture majors wel
comed.
0 Chi Delta Phi, women's llter
erary honorary, will meet at 6:30
p. m. tonight in the Student Union,
according to Valera Vierra, presi
dent.
0 Members of Ski Quacks, ski
ing organization, are to meet in
the Student Union at 6:30 this eve
ning, Sonny Stoyanov, president,
has announced.
0 The Air Command squadron
will meet at 4 p. m. today in the
Student Union. All basic Air Force
ROTC students who have above a
3 point GPA are asked to attend
the meeting.
0 Phi Theta Upsllon, Junior
women’s honorary, will meet at
6:30 this evening in the Student
Union, according to Janet Wick,
president of the organization.
Campus Calendar *
6:00 Journ Conf 315 SU
Christian Sci 334 SU
10:30 Rel Dir Assoc 319 SU
Noon Bus Ed Lunch 110 SU
Speech Staff 114 SU
4:00 Air Com Sqd 111 SU
Alp Cl 112 SU
Schwering Din Ger Snpr
6:30 Pi Lambda Theta 110 SU
Ski Quacks 112 SU
Chi Delta Phi 315 SU
Chapins 334 SU
Phi Theta Com Lnch SU
Phi Beta Ger 2nd fl"
6:45 Yng Repubs 114 SU
7:00 Hillel 111 SU
7:30 Delta Nu Alpha 113 SU
YMCA Bd 319 SU
Chem Movie 16 Sci
8:00 City Panhel Brdg 213 SU
SAVE YOUR MONEY!
with our
CASH and CARRY
‘ SERVICE!
INSTANT PRESSING'