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.
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