+ EMERALD EDITORIALS + Trial Run Saturday will witness a flurry of activity for Campus Greeks as Panheilenic, the Inter fraternity council and the member houses stage their first ('.reek Week. The plans for the activity have come a long way since their inception, but in some ways not far enough. A noxious phrase in •the initial plan of the I PC which stated that the purpose of Greek Week was .. To ele vate the Greek Houses and put them a little apart from the rest of the campus,” has been eliminated, and the event has been trimmed down. IFC and Panheilenic leaders envision an expanded Greek Week in the future, and explain that the current plan, which stresses only social activity, is merely be ing run as a test. Should the Greeks, and the campus, receive Greek Week enthusi astically, the plan is to be expanded in the future. We hope that the campus will suspend judgment on the event until it is past, the groups have held their critiques, and plans and recommendations for future observance of Greek Week are formulated. Should it expand into what the more seri ous. idealistic members of the sponsoring groups envision, Greek Week could be valu able as a public relations project for the en tire University as well as for the fraternity system at Oregon. We've been unable to get excited about a day filled with athletic events and social ac tivity' alone. We remain unexcited about the plan, except as a test. We’d like to see a real Greek Week, featuring serious contemplation of the place of the fraternity and sorority in con temporary college life, as well as social functions. Certainly, the latter are as much a part of fraternity life and of all college life. But these things alone cannot, to our way of thinking, justify another major activity weekend. We wish the first Greek Week success. We'd like to see a positive, constructive Greek Week "become a part of the Oregon tradition. In a sense then, Saturday will be a test of the Oregon fraternity system. We hope it passes. The Voting Age Should 18-year-okls vote? Stop and think about it, for there’s a good chance that we’ll be asked to vote on the question a year from November. The Oregon Senate has passed a proposed constitutional amendment to reduce the voting age and the House is expected to concur, thus placing the question on the 1956 ballot. We’re for the 18-year-old vote. The question is closer to us than to the majority of the voters, and we’re right on the edge of the age group in question, but there are many strong reasons for our choice in addition. The first argument in favor of the mea sure is, of course, “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote.” This argument is mote than an appeal to the emotions, it carries considerable moral weight. Is it morally right to send men to war to enforce a policy which they had no part in establishing? • But this Only bears on whether or not 18 year-olds deserve to vote. Whether or not they are qualified to vote is another question. We believe they are. When the United States was founded, most young people were with their parents until the age of 21. Farmers stayed on the family farm. Apprentices to artisans were likely to adopt the political opinions of their masters. This is certainly not the case in contem porary America. We have hangovers from those days in laws which prevent persons under 21 from obligating themselves for their own debts and from entering con tracts, but the case for continuing these re strictions is not the strongest. Today's average 18-year-old has approxi mately five years more schooling than the 18-year-old at the turn of the century. New trends in education have given him a greater civic interest along with a keener under standing of things political. It is basic in Democratic thinking that those who are affected bv the actions of government should have a share in govern ment. This could be carried to extremes, but in our times, 18 i> as good a place to draw the line as 21. Another factor is the non-voting habit acquired in the three years between which modern Americans gain freedom of action and receive the right to vote. It has been proven that the age group between 21 and 30 exercises its right to vote less than other age groups. The three years of political dormancy between 18 and 21 certainly con tribute. Oregon's Senate has taken a step in the right direction. We hope the House w ill fol low suit, and the voters, given the chance, will do likewise in 1956. One To Go From the speed shown in the student af fairs checking lines in the Student Union ballroom Monday morning, registration time was really cut down this term. Only one problem remains : the lengthy lines for de partmental stamps. At 7 :45 a.m. Monday English lines ex tended from Friendly hall out almost to the street. Over 50 people were waiting in line when the political science department finally opened registration at 8:15 a.m. And the usually lengthy physical educa tion lines were even longer with the rush for tennis and golf classes. somewhere there must be a solution to the problem of lengthy lines, for each term it is the same lines which are notoriously long and slow moving. As a start, there fs no ex cuse for the departments not to be open at 8 a.m. if 8 a.ni. is the time set for them to be gin business. The larger departments could use more people to check the cards, possibly separating the lower division from the upper division classes. Both the students and the persons regis tering for the departments should be aware of what is to be done. Perhaps a list of the cards to be filled out, how they are to be filled out, and where they are to be filed should be included in the registration pro cedure material. Certainly the person who is registering for the department should be instructed as to whether he is to check the adviser’s sig nature and what he is to do in case of schedule conflicts. Rather than holding up the lines, the latter should be referred to the department office. Even the old dog senior is likely to feel like a frustrated freshman when faced with regis tration. More aging doesn’t help when new systems are'tried and new cards added each year. There ought to be a simpler way. Stu dent affairs has improved its service im mensely just this past term ; the departments should be able to take similar steps. Take Care College people are more or less mature and settled down. At least, most of the time they are. . But we always like to be careful on a day like today. (It’s the first day of April.) On April Fool’s Day only 14 years ago, one of our classmates brought some goodies to class which he was quite willing to share. Many of us wondered why. We found out—• the goodies were cakes of soap coated with chocolate and covered with coconut. Moral: Even though that was 14 years ago, be careful, because it is April Fool’s Day—and you never know. INTERPRETING THE NEWS Officials Reluctant To Reveal Policy By <1. M. ROBERTS Associated IVess Nw« Analyst The fog of wordH which en closes American policy, or lack of policy, toward Quemoy and Matsu Islands grows denser all the time, but one little sugges tion of what the United States may be working toward has slipped through the murk of con flicting opinions. That is the Idea, which may have reached Peiping through one channel or another, that Nationalist Chinn would la* re i|Ulrc<| to gl\e up the small offshore Islands in return for guarantees against an armed attack off Formosa. After that, some think the Chi nese Reds could bring their claims on Formosa before the world in peaceful fashion, either through the United Nations or in direct negotiations with the interested powers. There seemed to be little chance they would get more than a hearing. Whether anyone has gone very far even on these lines of thought is unclear. As for the possibility that the Reds are determined to start keeping their threat to take everything, three important viewpoints have been made pub lic. Admiral Carney, chief of na val operations, is reported to be lieve the Reds will attack Matsu in two weeks. President Elsenhower says he doesn’t rule it out, but in dicates strongly he doesn't l>c lleve it. At any rate he wishes people \\ oiildn't go around making that kind of idea pub lic since nobody in Washington hut tiny crystal hulls on I lie subject, It embarrasses the commnnder-ln-rhlcf, mid it doesn't hr Ip peace. The Chinese Nationalist com mander on Matsu la leas optimis tic and more fatalistic about the prospects than the President. He says It looka as though the Hed.s "Intend to come pretty soon, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, or It might hi- next year. You can't tell." Out of the conflict of opinions in Washington, with Carney, Ad miral Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a num ber of Republican congressional leaders wishing the President would take a tough stand which he isn’t yet ready to do, one thing seemed likely to emerge. The business of "anonymous" spokesmen for the government seemed ripe for review. On March 8 such u spokesman In Tokyo, who can hardly have been any other than Command ing l.eneral Hull, said I he |(eds were ready. That's what Car ney pinpointed at one of those “Jon cun safely say tint don't quote me" dinners with re porters. The issue between Carney and the President was drawn with out Eisenhower saying a public word, by a White House briefer who himself demanded the re porters leave him in anonymity. That brought a touch of farce to one of the world's most critical situations. Despite the dim suggestions of a trade of the small Islands for peace, American policy on the subject remained largely anony mous. too. Made It! wo—I got INCOMPLETE'’ In Math 100, “WITHDRAWN’ In Comp, CONDITIONAL In Wnttern Civ, and a “D” In I’K_ Boy: Thank goodnegH I didn’t flunk anything thltt tenn. oreqor7i iMeQOLD ih^ Oregon Rally Emerald is published five s a week the school sear