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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1961)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (Continued from paqe 2) There art* two final games with OSC at which the Ingenuity ol our Hally Squar can be exer cised. Thia ia their chance to prove that they do poHsetMi or iginality. Ntevc ('handler, Junior in Kttat Aslan Ktiidlcs. I jiu-ritld Kdltor: I wan somewhut surprised to read the article "Operation Abo lition; Fleming: Reds Will Take Over" In the Krrierald of Fri day, Feb. 17, 1961. According to the article, Mr. Leslie Fleming, at a discussion panel of the film "Operation Abolition" Thursday in the Student Union, made the following statement; "Socialism and Communism are both t ji e same. 1 sec no difference in the terms. , , . Some Scandinavian nations are socialistic although they have the same identical tendencies as in Russia. In Fin land a person who doesn't agree with the Russians can't be elect ed." The fact that people as sociating with the House Un American Activities Committee are generally known to be fa natic black-and-white thinkers perhaps makes the statement understandable, but it certain ly does not make it forgivable. The first two of Mr. Flem ings assertions. “Socialism and Communism are both the same" and “some Scandinavian na tions are socialistic although they have the same identical tendencies as in Russia," are pure nonsense, as anyone knows. Of course I would be interest ed in learning just exactly what Mr. Leslie Fleming means by the "same identical tendencies that some Scandinavian na tions have with Russia," but I guess I really should not start waiting for his answer—It might take too long. Being so obviously false, the mentioned two statements would not even justify this article, but, in his comment on Finland, Mr. Fleming goes a step too far. The assertion "in Finland a per son who doesn’t agree with the Russians can’t be elected" is not only ridiculous, but a seri ous insult, serious to the ex tent that it deserves some at tention. In the first place, Mr. Fleming's knowledge about Fin land most likely and certainly, if we are to judge on the ba sis of the quotation seems to oe immcu io mens line Stock holm is the capital of Finland” and "Jean Sibelius was a fa mous long-distance runner.” He is in no way qualified to make nny comments on Finnish home politics, especially not from a platform and with an authorita tive tone. It Is to be deplored that Mr. Leslie Fleming does not realize the responsibility attached to publicity. Being a citizen of Finland and having spent nil my life there, except for the last five months, I think I am in a somewhat bet ter position to answer the ques tion of who can and who can not “be elected” in Finland. The term “to be elected,” of course, is most vague, but if we assume for a moment that Mr. Fleming happens to mean elect ing to the Parliament and pub lic offices, we have some grounds for discussion. Finland is a democracy, a neutral coun try, which does not belong to any blocs and does not take or ders from the Kremlin or from anywhere else, either. She has a president, a cabinet and a par liament, the same system of government as the United States has, except that Finland has several major parties, while the United States has two. Fin land has a parliamentary sys tem, with which the Finns do elect, and will continue to elect, any person they want to, re gardless of the person's agree ing with the Russians and re gardless of what Mr. Leslie Fleming has to say about the matter. And, of the supposed "Identical tendencies" Finland might have with Russia, I know none; but among not quite so identical tendencies X can very easily recall at least the World War IX. CHso Appelqvist, Sophomore in Liberal Arts from Finland. Emerald Editor: Your editorial of Feb. 20 in cludee the phrase "our having to develop the Harvard of the Went." Does thin mean the University of Oregon objectives include such a development? If so consider this: One important Harvard fea ture is the unisexual campus; girls get no closer than privil eged enrollment at Radcliffe. Having seen numerous campus es during my undergraduate years. I can state that Oregon seems strongly coed-orientated. Many might protest if. to im prove the academic life, author ities started a Harvard-Radcliffe arrangement (e.g. all the boys at Corvallis, all the girls in Eu gene). On the other hand, perhaps such a change would be noticed only on Saturday nights. Dur ing the week, UO students seem unmindful of the other sex if the local dressing habits are con sidered. Boys shun ties, wear the pop ular rural "lcvis.” Girls affect male dress (eg. slacks). This results in a charming, relaxed and most un-Harvard informal ity. Such informality seems sym bolic of our unique culture which should probably not be altered to imitate Harvard, which sym bolizes a cultural "other world" of New England. Incidentally, when I lived East of the Missis sippi, the only Northwest school which most people seem ed familiar with was Reed. And awhile back, Kiplinger published the educators' own evaluations which indicated that University of California (at Berkeley) was already in position to claim that "Harvard of the West” title. Perhaps such a title is really no prize at ail. Having seen both sides of the USA, I submit that the burning question is which school will attain that more prized goal: recognition as the "Oregon of the East.” J. Fields, Graduate student in Journalism. Kmc raid Kditor: About your writeup of the panel discussion of "Operation Abolition," in the Kinerald Fri day , Feb. 17, may I ask space for three points? 1. You properly gave chief hilling to Mr. Fleming, who was a guest on the campus. You might have added that he spoke with restraint and cour tesy under trying conditions. No doubt many students agree with his position, but few of those who do took the trouble to show up. 2. The report of what I was supposed to have said misquot ed half of my argument and credited me with one of Mr. Fleming's statements. But let us not waste space in what would be a boring attempt to straight en out those minor parts of an otherwise accurate account. 3. You omitted one of the highlights of the afternoon's discussion. That came after Mr. Fleming had tried to lump Com munism and Socialism as pretty much the same thing. One of the several Hungarian student* then uttered three simple sen tences which were like a bea con in a fog. In Hungary a few years ago, Ciyorgy Handlery recalled, peo ple had fought against Commu nism. He was proud to have been one of the Freedom Fight ers. Among the Freedom Fight ers had been many Socialists, many of the Socialists had died in that fight, and he owed it to their memory to make that statement to us. Mr. Handlery’s words not only moved the audience deep ly, but also reminded us of some of the realities of the fight to save and to extend freedom in the world. Much of the dis cussion (Including much of my own I had been far from those realities—in part, to be sure, because of the nature of t h e film we had to discuss. Val R. Lorwin, Prof, of History. • • Dear Editor: If It is Mr. Leslie Fleming’s (of ‘Reds Will Take Over”) wish to excite the people of this and other communities into such a clamor that they will read his name in the paper and remember it when the next elec tion comes around, he is well on his way to success. As the Em erald said, “The film's purpose, according to Fleming, was ‘to alarm’ Americans out of their 'apathy' about communism," but Fleming, with his concen trated statements, may alarm Americans into submission. How can any American who has lived through the p o s t World War II day and the Ko rean War so positively say that by 1965 (in four years) the Communists will take over the world, and that we will be “li quidated." All this is fine for publicity and etcetera, but such an absolute asscertation doesn’t do much for the morale of the politically unaware American. Mr. Fleming’s defiance of the difference between Communism and socialism is also of poten tial danger. Communism, as set down by Karl Marx and Fried rich Engles is “the formation of the proletariat into a class, ] overthrow of bourgeois suprem- j acy, (and) conquest of political power by the proletariat.” Com munism and socialism in defini tion are very much alike, but the communism practiced by the Soviets is only a distorted mu tation of Marx's, although they claim it is the same. In compar- j ing socialism and Soviet commu nism, you will find a chasm as wide and deep as the difference between President Kennedy’s ideas of federal control over ed ucation and medicine, and the Soviet exploitation of Cuba. Ah emphatic as Mr. Fleming is, I hope that the students here at the University realize that we are not fighting a losing battle, and that they all have a deep interest of the problem at stake. I fpr one, truly believe that the only Red Star Mr. Fleming will encounter here in the United States is that of the manure he uses on his front yard. •John K. Dolan, ■Sophomore-Political Science. * * Emerald Editor: I would appreciate it if you would publish the following in your Letters to the Editor col umn. I am a senior history major at the University of Hawaii, and plan to leave Honolulu near the end of the summer on a year long trip to Europe by way of Asia and Africa. Since my funds are somewhat limited, and since I hope to see more than the con ventional tourist fare and avoid “American tourist” type hotels, this might be called a Vaga bond Tour rather than a Grand Tour. Nevertheless, 1 don’t an ticipate a slimmer measure of enjoyment or of educational div idends. I would like to hear from someone who has similar incli nations who might be interested in accompanying me. Tom Peterson, 1315 Optra St., Honolulu, Hawaii. It occurs to me that I haven’t written anything about the wonderful state of Oregon for quite a while, so here goes: Eugeneans meet on the street. One says to the other, X didnt see you last Sunday morning. Where were you?” “I was in church,” the other one answers. ‘ Oh really?” says the first. “Which tent do you go to?” An Oregonian stops a stranger on the street. “Where are you from, stranger?” he asks. “New York,” the stranger replies. “Oh?” says the Oregonian. “How far is that from Port land? A sad-looking young Oregonian runs into his friend on the street. “My dad’s out of work,” he says. Oh? his friend says. “I didn’t know the mills were shut down.” Two little Eugeneans are peeping through a fence into a nudist colony. “Who’s in there, men or women?” asks one. “I can’t tell,” the othet one answers. “They don’t have their overalls on.” One Eugene city councilman runs into another. “I got a new job,” the first one says. “Oh yeah?” the other one says, “on the pumps or the lube rack?” One Eugenean runs into another. “Hey, let’s do the town tonight,” he says. “Naw,” answers his friend. “I don’t want to break a dollar just for that.” And then I wrote the first three stanzas to a long epic poem: Where the sawmills pimple the landscape, Where whales drift ashore to rot, I go me now to Willamette, The land that God forgot. Where the Doug fir grows parasitic And the sky is a velvet grey; Come with me, dear, to Willamette Where it rains twenty inches a day. You’ll love, dear, being a Webfoot; You’ll love wading to and fro. And together we’ll get a two-point And flunk out of the U of O. And now a word from our sponsor: buy Dairy Queens; they’re tasty and delicious. You’ll notice I don’t make fun of Dairy Queens. I’m not allowed to. Students... BUDGET BOOSTER - SPECIAL - Dp. SHAKE FRIES BURGER ALL FOR ONLY 69c AT THE 4 A 13 & HILYARD Dairii Queen ENDS TODAY!!!
