DAILY NEBRASKAN
"Wednesday, December 16, 1942
Suspense of Future Makes
Studying Seem Useless
Mr. Paul McNutt
Manpower Commissioner
Washington.
Dear Mr. McNutt:
The enlisted reserve closed on this
campus yesterday after a high percen
tage of the men in school here joined
the ranks. Many of us are holding our
breath now, however, because we
don't know what we will be doing next
semester. We aren't afraid to fight,
any of us, but we need to know wheth
er or not we are to fight or stay in
school before we can do a good job of
either.
Most of us are in a reserve of some
kind. We are in navy reserves, air
corps reserves, ROTC, or the ERC.
Many of us have been in since last
summer or even earlier and it has
been a difficult job for us to concen
trate on our work here at the univer
sity with so many rumors going the
rounds here concerning the university
and its students in relation to the war
program.
There have been a lot of us in
school who have been average stu
dents before this semester, but some
thing has happened which cannot be
fully explained even to ourselves, mak
ing school work seem unimportant. We
cut classes, miss assignments, and in
general take an attitude which in
peace time would have been unexcus
able. Under the present circum
stances, however, we believe our state
of mind is justified. Our security has
toppled.
We came to the university to get
an eductaion. We really want that
education and we really want to study
because we realize its importance. Un
til the psychological barrier of uncer
tainty is lifted, it is impossible for us
to proceed along these lines of hard
work and conscientious study.
If we find we can stay in univer
sity to complete our education or can
stay, even for the rest of this year, we
can and we will buckle down. We
aren't lazy, we aren't indifferent to the
war, we aren't morons. We are just
so damned mixed up we can't do any
thing. The announcement of the plan
will be a relief.
3,000 University of
Nebraska Men.
&I?aft&3i to &StflI?TO
A. C ?.' ConMpoodUai Rfxwts boat W hinytoa
Merry Christmas
JhsL (Daily,
FORTY -SECOND YEAR.
Subscription Rates are $1.00 Per Semester or 11 60 tor
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Entered as second-class matter at the postofftce in Lin
coln, Nebraska, under Act of Congress March 8. 1879.
nd at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103,
Act of October 3, 1917. Authorized September 80. 193.
Published daily during H-e school year except Mondays
and Saturdays, vacations and examinations periods by Stu
dents of the University of Nebraska under the supervision
Of the Publications Board.
Offices ...... .Union Building
Day 2-7181. Night 2-7193. Journal 2-3330.
Editor Robert W. Schlater
Business Manager Phillip W. Kantor
MATTER?
By Carton Broderick
Well, has this been a weak end or has this
been a weak end! In fact my end is so weak
that I ain't even been going to my animal
husbandry class or my woodworking lab on
account of because I been resting up from that
big Cement Bored brawl which me and Callie
about breezed over to at the basketball court
the other night.
Well, we really had a swell dinner before
hand on account of because we was eating din
ner with some of the boys and their babes at
the Ali-American cafe. None of us wore our
pins that night though so nobody would know
who we was and since it wasn't Tuesday noon,
they wouldn't even get suspicious.
Well, after we had eat our dinner of three
hamburgers and sixteen Irish and sodas, our
babes which was treating us that night sprung
the big suprize on us. We wasn't even going
to the Cement Bored brawl at all but we wan
whipping out to here Lucky Strike and his
band which was playin at the Turnstick. So
we goes out there and there was sure a lot of
people out. there who all of us knew. Wc saw
Bill Ilosibon with some HIT which is the name
of a sisterhood which has got a reputation for
having hips but whose first two greek monikers
are Kappa Alpha.
Well, Callie just came in and told me that
she had been talking to one of her sisters who
went to the Cement Bored party and I guess
it was sure a funny deal.
Well, I guess, at half time, some babe
called "Oleomargarineball" gets up on the
band stand and makes a big speech that the
Cement Boreds is now going to present six
eligible bachelers. Well, everybody sits on the
floor, I guess, and these Cement Boreds whip
around in their flat hats and long trailing
robes to where these guys is sitting. They clap
a big hat on the guys head and hand him a
cane and he is supposed to go up on the stage
on account of because he is a new eligible.
Wel, da Cement Boreds find five of the
guys but there ain't no sixth eligible any place
in the basketball room. So finally after they
had looked for him about half a hour, this
"Oleomargarineball" babe says that some hick
called Bill Rosibon is the other guy. And here
all the time he was out at Lucky Strikes band
at the Turnstick. It sure ain't no wonder they
couldn't find him. But he was having a good
time out there anyhow, so I guess he ain't too
dissapatcd.
WASHINGTON. (ACP). Telephone lines to the Washing'
ton Office of Defense Transportation are glutted with calla
from students who ask whether there will be a government on
dcr limiting their holiday travel.
The answer is, "No." You'll get home for vaaction all,
right, assuming you aren't smothered by competition for fares.
In some areas where schools are close together, college and
university authorities have voluntarily staggered vacation pe-
riods so that all students won't be leaving on the same trains.
m
Enrollment Note
College and university enrollment has dropped about 14.
percent in the last year, according to latest figures from the
Office of Education. That figure will become more imposing
as 18 and 19 year olds who make up one-third of the coun-
army.
66 A rmy Specialized Training Program" '
Colleges interested in getting ''contracts" to train soldiers .
duties are advised bv the American Council of
Education to take a thorough-going inventory of their physical
plants. Once the so-called "Army opeciaiizea x raining rro
gram" is announced, that information may come in handy.
Among other things, the government may want to know how .
many additional students could be housed on or near the cam
pus, how many more than this number could be housed if 50
percent of the college's physically fit young men were drafted,
tC
It is under the "Army Specialized Training Program" that .
a selected group of 18-19 year old draftees (and perhaps soldiers
in other categories as well) will be sent to college for technical
training. Details of the plan, long awaited by educators in
Washington and elsewhere, are still a secret among members of
the Joint Army-Navy Personnel Board, charged with the re-.
sponsibility of drawing up the plan.
Food, Fiber & Colleges
Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard has made it clear
that wc cannot possibly produce more food and fiber next year
than the United Nations can use, even if America's 6 million
fanners meet the record goals they arc now sotting themselves .
for next season.
Besides food demands of gigantic proportions, we face the
necessity of building stockpiles tor post-war ieeding oi m
nourished Europeans and hunger-worn Asiatics. If these peo
ples hear our promises of Freedom from Want, they probably
envision a global war against starvation. That vision must de
velop into something more than a mirage.
Lack of manpower is the No. 1 obstruction in the way of
successful food and fiber production next year. Secretary
Wickard has already congratulated college men and women
throughout the nation, as well as others who helped bring in
the 1942 harvest, the most bountiful in our histor. Accompany
ing his congratulatory message is a call for even greater effort
in 1943. His plea is echoed by Washington officialdom gen
erally. No wartime job takes priority over food production.
Notes on Nylons
The stocking salvage program will be in high gear by
February. Here are a few things co-eds might remember if they
aren't already aware of them:
"Useable stockings" include silk, nylon, mixtures of silk
and rayon, silk and nylon, nylon and rayon, silk and cotton, and
nylon and cotton . . . Don't contribute other silk or nylon gar
ments . . . Don't expect to be paid for your contributions it's
strictly proposition for patriots . . . Hosiery collection depots
are set up at hosiery counters in retail stores . . . Stores will
continue to sell the few new stocks of silk and nylon hose that
are left ... If you want to contribute your times as well as your
stockings, get in touch- with your local salvage chairman . . .
And on the final point, Capital to Campus is cautious enough
to quote the government: "Be sure all salvaged hose are"
washed."
Penny
Banks
BY JOHNNY BAUERMEISTER
The government wasn't kidding when it phopresied
that going into the year 1942, the whole country
would find itself concentrating every ounce of ita
strength and every cent of its wealth towards the
war effort. In accordance with this comes a message
from, N. Taylor Boss, director of the U. S. mints in
Washington.
Director loss message pertains particularly to
an effort to induce the return to circulation of the
many millions of small coins which, tying up strat
egic metals, lie idle in china pigs, little banks, glass
jars and the like, in homes all over the nation. At
the Mint there is now an enormous demand for one
cent pieces occasioned by state sales taxes, federal
excise taxes, vending machines and various other
factors.
Convert to Stamps. . ,
It is not the purpose of this campaign! that the
individuals gvfc up tljeir savings bf smal coms but
that they merely convert them into war savings
stamps ,or even into coins of larger denomination,
of which there is an ample supply. In any case the
important thing is for us to get the pennies back
into circulation thru the banks, corner groceries or
elsewhere in the market place.
It is important that it be understood that for
every coin hidden away, the Mint must make an
other to replace it; for the country must have coin
to carry on the war program and all its other busi
ness affairs. A statement from a press release
pointed out that for every penny or five cent piece
hidden away, the Mint must use scarce metals to
make another to replace it, so great is the demand
for these small coins, especially for the penny.
Last year the government made 1 billion 437
jmilliprii pennies. Into that one denomination alone,
.ventj4,f 00 tons; of copper,, nojt. to mention the tin and
'zinc. AH three of those meUls are now on the crit-
or the U.
ical list, sorely needed for war purposes.
Builds Two Cruisers.
The 4,600 tons of copper consumed last year in
making the 1 cent piece, would have met the com
bined requirements of copper for building 2 cruisers,
2 destroyers, 1,245 Flying Fortresses, 120 field guns
and 120 howitzers ; or enough for one and one-quarter
million shells for our big field guns.
Similar messages for the return to circulation
of idle coins has been sent to all colleges and uni
versities about the country. The University of Pitts
burgh alone, noting a press release on the subject,
garnered in and got into circulation on the student
body's own initiative, 113,000 pennies in about three
weeks. In view of the fact that we are now entering
the Christmas season, a period of supplementary
spending, we as the student body should easily be
able to top that challenge, and at the same time
perform a patriotic duty.
' ' ' M t t j ; ,