Oregon Daily
•EMERALD
The Oregon Daily Emerald if published Monday through Friday during the college yeat
from Sept. 15 to June 3, except Nov. 16, 25 through 30, Dec. 7 through 9, 11 through Jan. 4
March 8 through 10, 13 through 29, May 3, and 31 through June 2, with issues on Not. 21,
Jan. 23, and May 8, by the Student Publications Board of the University of Oregon. En
tered as second class matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 per
school year; $2 per term. ,
A Great Newspaperman
We got into one of those bull sessions over a cup of coffee
"Wednesday and during the conversation someone asked us why
■\ve were in journalism. He wanted to know what we thought we
were getting out of our journalism courses, out of our college
courses in general and what we expected to do with journalism.
Today people from throughout the state of Oregon who are
"doing something with journalism’’ are on campus. The annual
Oregon Press Conference is in session and this afternoon these
active newspapermen will hear the eighth annual Eric W.
Allen Memorial Lecture.
Eric W. Allen taught many of these men. His memory, his
ideas are still teaching journalists here.
He was a great newspaperman. Palmer Hoyt, publisher of the
Denver Post—an example of what can he done with journalism
by a graduate of Oregon—, once called Allen a "practical philo
sopher.”
Practical philosophy is a good description of this business of
journalism, Most newspapermen we know are philosophers—
they dream, they think, thew imagine—but they’re practical.
You have to be in this business, because it is a business.
Somehow the ideals, the philosophy must be combined with the
cold, hard, business facts and the sometimes unpleasant gath
ering of the news.
It’s a newspaper’s job to report the facts, the truth—and that’s
often an unpleasant and difficult job. If you can’t do that job,
^•ou’d better get out, a newspaperman of many years experience
'pnce warned us.
Eric Allen felt his students needed a broad education before
*ehy tackled the job. He recognized the value of having "some
thing to write about” as well as a technical knowledge of journal
ism techniques.
At the time of his death a Eugene Register-Guard editorial
said “he displayed an insatiable curiosity about the world we
live in and this is what he transmitted to his neophytes in
journalism.”
The Allen Memorial fund was set up by the Oregon News
paper Publisher's association as a tribute to this man—a "living
tribute” because that’s what Eric Allen would have wanted.
What are we getting out of our college courses? We hope
xve’re learning "something to write about,” we hope we’re learn
ing how to tackle that job of transmitting the news. We think
it’s important. Eric Allen thought so too.—(J.W.)
Which Way Will They Go?
We’ve been thinking over a few of the statements made by
John Badeau, president of the Near East foundation, during his
campus appearance here Thursday.
There’s one trend he emphasized that we'd like to mull over
for a few paragraphs. The countries of the Near East seem to be
striving to achieve “neutrality” in the current world friction,
rather than taking sides with East or West.
We’ve watched that happen with Nehru in India. He’s strad
dling the fence between the Soviet and the free world. Which
way is he going to jump? If Egypt, the Near East countries and
the African states are working to form a neutral ‘Afrasian’ bloc
in world affairs, just where dbes that leave the U.S. and the
rest of the free world?
Are the “backward” nations of the world blind to the advant
ages of the freedoms of the western world ? Can they possibly be
lieve they can ignore the friction between East and Wst? Is neu
trality possible in a world torn by two incompatible idealogies?
The questions are endless. The answers, unfortunately, are
Tiarder to come by.
We don’t think it’s a question of which side the middle-of
the-road nations favor, They need neutrality and they need
peace to develop their own national governments, educational
systems, economies and culture.
We don’t think these nations are pro-western. They are still
■too busy reaping the harvest of western imperialism to accept
western propaganda at face value.
But they aren’t pro-communist either. Possibly, if and when a
<choice is forced on this neutrality bloc, these countries will go
with the west. Independence, freedom, humanity are after all the
goals Asia and Africa are seeking.
Since World War II, national problems have ocupied the
neutral bloc. They’re working to erase that “backward” label.
Their aim seems to be to rise out of the colonial state.
* That seems more important than existing world tensions in
1954. It should be equally important to nations of the western
world. If they can solve their own problems, our battle against
-communism is more than half won.
It’s an awfully big ‘if’. We only sincerely hope they never have
to jump either way to make a cold war hot.
-A Day at the Zoo
Bulwark of Western Reaction
Dies by Subversive Hand
by Bob Funk
Emerald Columnist
“Even the daintiest flower has
its roots in some dirt."
—from Pessisiniism’s Gamebook
Who knows what evil dwells
in the hearts of men. Surely
Thelga Slum, Professor of Mod
ern Fables, did not know. She,
for that matter, did not particu
larly care. She was thinking
about other things. Perhaps the
reader will be disappointed to
learn that "other things” in this
case meant a poem which Thelga
was writing.
(“My aching
heart,” the
poem went,
"doth raise
this question;
Can this he
love, or indi
gestion?” And
then some
more.) MIhs |
(and it WAS |
MISS Slurm; "
terribly, definitely, hoprlmiy
MISS Slumi) was writing; the
poem to read at the annual Con
fessions Dinner of the I'niversit
ty Reactionary League, of which
she was a member. It was gen
erally known ground campus that
AIlss Slurm was the very bul
wark of reaction west of the
Mississippi.
She had gone out and gotten
drunk the night Taft didn’t be
come Republican nominee. She
had been arrested for illegally
voting for McCarthy in Wiscon
sin. She had never wore red; al
ways white and blue. She had
stock in American Tel. & Tel.
Miss Slurm entered Amiable
Hall, her poem wandering
through her head. It was late
afternoon, and she thought she
would just go up to her office
and — WHOOMPHRTJMPLES
CRUMPN!! Something heavy hit
Miss Slurm from above; her
head was severed from her body.
It ricocheted off a drinking foun
tain and landed at the foot of the
stairs, quite dead. Somewhere
above, someone ran away from
the stairwell, and a door slam
med. There was no sound but the
drip, drip, dripping of blood.
“SLURM DECAPITATED BY
FALLING SHAKESPEARE
VARIORUM,” the University
Daily Birthstone said by way of
a headline. And below' this:
“Booth Truth, President of the
Reactionary League, stated last
night 'that he believed Miss
Slurm’s death was a direct re
sult of ‘subversive activity.’ ”
And below this there W'as a head
line which said “Dance Sched
uled, Set for Mon.”, but that was
irrelevant.
Ignace Rongsister and Janet
Planet, student body president
and campus beauty queen, re
spectively, were sitting in the
student union, reading the Birth
stone. "Subversive, eh,” said
Rongsister. “I must remember to
put this on the Senate Agenda."
“Yeah,” said Janet Planet,
who was hoping that he would
Dean E. L. Johnson
Returns From LA
E. L. Johnson, dean of the col
lege of liberal arts, returned from
Los Angeles this week where he
was serving on a Ford Foundation
selection committee.
Purpose of the meeting was to
review teachers from colleges and
universities of the Western states,
Alaska and Hawaii as possible
candidates for awards from the
“Fund for the Advancement of
Education,” which is subsidized by
the foundation.
The recipient of such an award
will receive a full year’s salary
and be allowed to travel or study
to improve his teaching.
buy her a hamburger. "Rut thul
ol’ daddy hunger is ngnowin’ or
my innards."
Rongsistcr offered her a life
saver, and she accepted and
crunched thoughtfully, .lust ther
a sinuous dark woman entered
dressed in a red dress. She war
wearing a veil, and there was 11
knife clutched in her teeth.
She hipped her way across the
room and seated herself betweor
Rongsiater and Janet Planet
"My name is Ignace Rongsiater
student body president," said Ig
nace Rongsiater (rather nervous
ly; he was not used to womer
in red).
"My name's Janet Planet,’
said Janet nasally, "and that ol
daddy hunger is agnawin' on mj
Innards, still."
“And MV name," said th<
Woman in Red "is Alice Malice
Communist Spy."And the waj
she said It with the knife betwecr
her teeth made them shiver
Something, they felt, was in the
Wind.
(Next week: Was Shakespeare
a Communist? The Pioneci
Father and Mother a Frustra
ted Romance; Alice Malice
Forms a Cell.)
Billiard Tourney
Begins Tuesday
The three highest scoring Indi
viduals In each event of the Inter
collegiate billiards tournament will
receive an expense-paid trip cart
to determine the college Individual
champlona, Jack Soeotufsky, chair
man of the tourney, has announced.
Scheduled to start on campur
Tuesday, the tournament will con
tinue through March 10. Oregon
placed third nationally in last
year's tournament.
The tourney will Is? held In the
Student Union under the direction
of I-ouis Belllstmo, recreational
director. Scores will be forwarded
to Chicago for compailson. The
Billiards Congress of America and
the Association of College Unions
sponsor the matches.
Applicants Wanted
By Geophysics Co.
Representatives of United Geo
physical Company. Inc., M. \V
Harding and Flint Agee, will? he
on campus Friday to interview
1 possible applicants for work in
i their field.and to talk with any
faculty members and students at
all levels who may be Interested.
There Is a strong demand for
men with a combination of geo
logy. physics and mathematics,
! according to the firm representa
tives. Appointments for interviews
i can bo made at the graduate
placement office, Emerald 206. A
meeting for Interested persons
has been arranged for Friday at
2 p. m. In Commonwealth 102.
Education Forms Spectrum
Of Mankind's Knowledge
by Eric Allen, Jr. (
(Kd. Note: This article is reprinted from Allen's column in the
Medford Mail-Tribune. Kric Allen. Jr. is city editor of the Mail
Tribune and is now on leave as the Kric Allen fellow at the
University journalism school. He is the son of the late Kric
Allen, founder and dean of the journalism school from 1912 un
til his death in 1944. We think Allen's "spectrum of knowledge”
is something every college student might well ponder.)
When one looks at a university or college catalogue, it’s easy to
think of "education" as being a whole group of separate compart
ments of knowledge. Too much, I think, this “compartmentaliza
tion" has dominated our thinking when we regard the process of
education.
More and more I am coming around to the conviction that know^j
ledge is knowledge, and has been brokn into parts (schools and de
partments) simply for the sake of manageability. Education is not
a bunch of separate subjects, but a spectrum or circle.
For the fun of it the other day, I tried to diagram this circle
and to fit each “compartment” lifto Us proper relative place. It
came out something like this:
Starting with mathematics at the top, it moves to philosophy, re
ligion, literature, music, art, architecture, applied technological an<^
vocational studies, economics, political science, law, history, lanp*
uages, education, sociology, anthropology, psychology, physical efi_ '
cation, medicine, biology, chemistry, geology, physics and back to
mathematics.
This is, of course, a purely arbitrary arrangement, but it seems
to furnish a coherent whole. In looking at the circle, I was suddenly
impressed with the fact that each had to be related to mankind, or
else it had no meaning. So I stuck “man" right in the middle of the
circle, as equally related to each "compartment."
If I were 'to be asked where journalism fits In, I’d have to place
it In the middle of the circle too, for this business of mass com
munications is related to all the activities of mankind. It’s true
that it concentrates on some more than others, but none of these 1
“arts or sciences” is without application to news work, for none is
without application to man and his activities.
At one time in history, notably during the Renaissance, a few of
the so-called “universal men" like Leonardo da Vinci, were able to
Lake the whole circle of knowledge as their field. Eeven these men/
giant figures that they were, could no longer do the same, for each
"specialty’ has become so complicated, so involved, that no one per
son could be expert in more than one, or two, or perhaps three of the ^
arbitrary divisions of knowledge. t
In this country only two men I know about have come anywhere to ?
being a “universal man.” These were Thomas Jefferson (who un- i
doubtedy has his “blind spots" too) and Benjamin Franklin, who J
was equally at home in electric science, philosophy or diplomacy, j
or in establishing a fire department.
Others have approached this ideal, hut few have had the sheer
brainpower and concentration to become true “universal men.” One
who came as close as anyone in this century, It would appear, was |
the late John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, whose range
of knowledge and activity was staggering when compared 'to that
of the average person. 4M
Perhaps it’s pointless to think about these abstractions, yet such '
pondering does perhaps result in a better understanding of what '
makes men tick, why they act the way they do, why in the last 20 ^
or 30 centuries thq,t man has developed into a being who has the «
capability of governing himself, or splitting the atom, or killing other A
men wholesale. ^
Man is a dangerous, fascinating, inspiring study. And he’s still
got a long way to go. ^