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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1958)
RE Evaluation The Emerald and its columnists have, on several occasions this year, inquired into the function and value of many of the extra curricular activities which appear to plague students and impede real progress in the more educational aspects of the University. An extra-curricular event which ended last Thursday, Religious Emphasis Week, is one activity' which violated the rules which seem to govern most campus extra curricular activities—RE Week actually performed a service to students and had some educational value. Those who went to the major addresses will attest the high quality of the speakers and the value of what they had to say. They frankly discussed some thorny prob lems in the topic area of “love and mar riage.” And through the discussions, fire sides, morning worship services, students could see the what, if not the why, of the different faiths in relation to marriage. We have only one real quibble on the week. The name should be changed. It is not the business of any state university to “emphasize” anv religion, but only to evaluate it and relate it to society'. Last year. RE Week was called “Religious Evaluation Week.” And it should be so called next year. Double Standard M estern observers have always suspected Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev of two faced tendencies, but now definite evidence has been uncovered to prove the pudgv Communist boss talks out of both sides of his mouth. The Associated Press reports from Mos cow that Khrushchev has scathed Russian farmers who have been converting the peoples’ sugar beet crop into home brew, and then drinking it! “The time has come to declare^ war on the drunks and moonshiners in Russia,” Khrushchev told an agricultural conference at Minsk recently. ' This view hardly measures up to Khrushv’s own performances at embassy parties, state receptions and other vodka laden occasions. Or perhaps Khrushchev is just borrowing a little from aristocracy in condemning home brew while personally quaffing vodka. Perhaps Khrushchev following a familiar ly-heard charge in our own political sys tem—expediency. Enrollment Up With perhaps much of the credit due to a freshman class which fall term earned a high 2.25 grade point average, winter term enrollment here at the University has in creased from 5,807 a year ago to the present figure of 6,259. Interesting to note is the senior class in crease—a healthy 21 per cent—which in dicates that many upper-classmen are transfers from other schools. Conversely, the sophomore class this year decreased one per cent from the winter term regis tration of last year. The added number of students is, in most areas, still reasonably imperceptible. But when the ‘‘World War Two babies” start hitting the colleges*about 1960, en rollment increases will be painfully felt by everyone. The need for “limited enrollment,” to be started next fall, will then be evident to nearly everyone. Footnotes Apparently the partially-clad male who has been strolling near women’s living groups during the wee morning hours lately hasn't checked up on the groups’ “man hours” schedules. Sneaky Trick r srr vai hm: rue- same answers as ^mith — v<?Lie A£& VV&2N6 PECAUSf YOU VXXs A WfSKENT T£St* Letters to the Editor Emerald Editor: Ninety-one concerned upper class women signed a petition requesting that Carson be an upper class dormitory next year. The petition now rests with Dean DuShane. Most of us signed because we felt the present dormitory housing for upper class independents and transfers (which now includes lower classmen i is most un satisfactory. We feel that the new dorms are better suited for that all important group living which is so desirable for freshman and sophomores. As the occupant of a single room which is poorly situ ated by the entrance, I am disturbed by piggeis and im mature ami thoughtless people who shout and sing with en thusiasm outside my window und in the lobby and hall* when entering, departing, and good nighting. . Women who desire prlva< y to the point of paying extra for the privilege of n aingle room have a serious purpose of con ceitrating on thcer studies) IX»rm meeting* and activities fail to fit in with heavy study loads which require many hours •* of preparation. For these reasons, i feel that senior women over 21, who are screened for maturity and pur- , pose, should be permitted off campus housing or have dormi tories facilitated to the.r needs, (Name withheld by request) ' < ‘Vigilance Committee’ Poor Method to Clean Un Countv Newsstands The censor's hand is about to be felt on the reading matter available to residents of Lane county. District Attorney Eu gene Venn has announced his intention to “clean up” coun ty newsstands by ridding them of lewd and in decent publica t i o n s — par ticularly “men’s magazines” which contain sug gestive pin-up pictures of wom en. Venn seeks to encourage all news dealers to voluntarily quit selling publications which fall under the nebulous and sub jective definition of being “lewd and indecent.” He is prepared, however, to prosecute dealers “who wish to ignore the simple dictates of decency as embodied in the law.” According to a letter from the district attorney’s office to the dealers, Venn has two main reasons for his newsstand clean up campaign: First, he is "genuinely con cerned with the effect such in decent publications have on the young people of the commun ity.” Second, he is concerned with the effect of such publications “within easy reach of a border line abnormal individual who may find the additional needed stimulus (in them) to make him a real menace to your commun ity.” * * * Under existing Oregon stat utes, Venn has ample authority to earry out his campaign. The law (ORS 167.150) provides that anyone who in any way traffics in “ ... any obscene or indecent book, paper, writing, printed matter, picture, draw ing, photograph or engraving — shall be subject upon con viction to imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months or by a fine of not more than $500 or both.” Under the statute, the same penalty can be meted out to anyone connected with any play, show or drama or with ”... any book, paper or other publi cation that contains accounts or stories of crime or lust or deeds of bloodshed ...” If the statute were to be strictly enforced, all Oregon newspapers, many magazines and books (including the Bible), and numerous radio, television and movie news and dramatic productions would not be avail able to Oregonians. The statute, in effect, pro vides the legal sanctions for a zealous district attorney or other state officer to conduct a genuine, Inquisition-style book burning. His problem, however, would be to convince a jury of the rightness of his charges. But Venn is not working in accordance with the law. He has compiled a list of 21 “lewd and indecent” magazines (not including- "Playboy”). Instead of charging the magazine deal ers with violating the law by selling the listed magazines, Venn is trying to pressure the dealers into allowing him to judge what they can sell. Venn’s method—in which the community has no vdice—could lead to many varieties of cen sorship with all its inherent evils. Yet it is not hard to sympha thize with what Venn is trying to do. Certainly, the county would be better off if some pub lications now sold W'ere banned. The almost-insolvable problems are to decide which publications should be prohibited and by what means the prohibition should be effected. Where should the line be drawn between, on the one hand, public safety and morality and, on the other hand, individual l ights and freedom of the press ? And who should decide where the line should be drawn ? * * * The Eugene Register-Guard, discussing the problem in an editorial last Friday, advocated the formation of a quasi-official “citizen's committee” to compile a list of “acceptable” publica tions. Dealers who adhered to the committee’s list would be awarded a seal to display. The committee, said the R-G, should represent a cross-section of the community. “It should have no authority to pull maga zines off the newsstands. It • J could only withdraw the seal which it bestowed.” The K-(i observed that "most merchants, we think. Mould find the value of the seal far greater than any small profit they might make from a few maga zines.” The R-G believes that such a committee would better fulfill the function of deciding what is lewd and indecent than would any district attorney and jury. But the paper quoted a Su preme Court decision from a case involving indecent publica tions which said that "... the jury... is the exclusive judge of what the community is, and in determining that conscience you are to consider the commun ity as a whole, young and old, educated and uneducated, the religious and irreligious -men, v/ome 1 and children.” The citizen’s committee, if it followed the rules prescribed by the K-(», might do some good. But numerous objections are obvious which make the plan inferior even to following the method set up by law. • The committee would prob ably be drawn from the -'‘do good” set in the community— clergymen, society matrons and other self-appointed peepers of the public morals. For these persons would be most inter ested in serving on such a group. The R-G admitted this possibility and said this would be "unfortunate.” • The committee would be an swerable only to itself. Its legal 1 status would be comparable to old-time "vigilance commit tees," or, nt worst, lynch mob'. • If, us the it-G hope*, the com mittee's seal of approval gained enough community prestige to Convince reputable merchant* that it tins to their benefit to ‘ display It, the stage would Ims i set for the committee to make the list of acceptable publica tions ever smaller. The minority of merchants . who didn't display the seal would, for u time, enjoy a mo nopoly on the racier publica tions. But those dealers would then be easy marks for the dis trict attorney. « • The committee, if it were successful, might take up larger goals and, as the R-G feared, “go into the book business, to " poking into libraries and com piling lists of wrong books'." • The committee- and this is most likely might be held in low regard by the community. f Continued on page 3) OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily Emerald it* published > four times in September anil five <!».*' a week (luring tin scliuol year, except ‘bring examination and vacation prriods^iy'ha Student Publications board of thy Kniver- A sity of Oregon. Kntered as second cla-s matter at the post office, Jiqst?nc, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5- per year, $2 per * term. Opinions expressed on the editorial page • are those of The Kmerald and do not pre tend to represent the opinion of the ASUO or the University, ’ ALLEN JOHNSON, Editor GAKY CAPPS, Ilusiness Manager i WILLIAM COOK, Editorial Page Editor PHIL HAGER, Managing Editor GLEN GRAVES, Advertising Mgr.
