Wednesday, May 5 1943
DAILY NEBRASKAN
JIvl (Dailip VhJbhaAliaiv
FOKTY -SECOND YEAR
Subscription Rates are J1.C0 Per Semester or $1.60 for the
S2.50 Mailed. Single copy. 6 Cents. Entered as second-class matter at the
postoffice in Lincoln. Nebraska, under Act of Congress March 3. 18.9, and at
epeclai rate of postage provided for in Section 1103. Act of October I. mil
Authorized September 30. 1922.
Published daily during the school year except Mondays and ,s'u1r,Ry,,i;
vacations and examinations periods by Students of the University of Nebraska
under the supervision of the Publications Board.
Day 2-7181.
Offices Union Building.
Night 2-7193.
Journal 2-3330.
Editor .Alan Jacobs
Business Manager Betty Dixon
Assistant Business Managers Charlotte Hill. Morton Zuber
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
ManaginR Editor George Abbott. Marjorle Mny
News Editors John Bauermeister. Pat Chamberlin. June Jamieson.
Marylouise Goodwin, Mary Helen Thorns.
Sports Editor Norris Anderson.
Circulation Manager Don Papcz.
I . . . fcnqhw&hA. (Mini
The Umpteenth Round
"500000 Miners Out on Strike."
Those were the words which headlined papers all over the
nation Saturday morning. In them, American people saw sonic
thing they could not understand. Just why would a half mil
lion men go on strike in wartime, particularly after the presi
dent had warned of "stern measures" if a strike threatened
by John L. Lewis was carried out?
News of the strike reached our fighting men abroad ; their
first reaction, according to a correspondent in the Far Kast,
was "one of bewilderment, then of anger."
"I'd just as soon shoot one of them as a Jap," one Amer
ican infantryman declared. "Going on a coal strike now is just
as much treason as giving up information to the Japs.
"Just what the hell," one soldier from Idaho wanted to
know, "do they think we're fighting for! We're trying to get
this thing over so that we can again concentrate on our own
national problems-not so that the UMW, the CIO, the AI L
or any other group can take advantage of an emergency to get
what they've been after so long."
Another, a little more pointedly, shouted: "Bring John L.
Lewis out here! We will take care of him!"
And that's the way our fighting men looked at it. DNB
and radio Tokio had a field day; London was bitter, Eome
blisteringly sarcastic.
The answer? Is difficult to determine. Certainly the half
million miners felt that they were doing the right thing. Lewis
had clashed with Roosevelt time and again on the issue ot
higher wages. In earlier disputes-most of them in peacetime
strike had accomplished what hearings and discussions had
fai'led to accomplish. Half a million idle men represents a se
rious threat to the war effort, no matter what their work may
have been; John L. Lewis and the miners knew that, hence
the strike.
Saturday, at noon, the government took over full control
of all coal mines. For the remainder of the war, it would seem,
labor leaders contemplating strikes will know what to expect.
And, very probably, there will be no more of them.
From the past weekend came a lesson both to labor and
v,of ;f loampil hefnre. micht have main-i
tained some harmony where strife alone has prevailed. Amy
thus does the problem ot government ami iauur ini.v..
as a major one in post-war domestic reurKm
i-.a .a v nAtA Wnuhinffton will have to call
the shots for the remainder of what looks like a pretty rough
battle. ..-.
Compulsory Military
Training Valuable . . .
Ever increasing in favor is the proposal for peacetime
military training of young men. Reports from Washington in
dieate that Congressional leaders endorse such a program, and
. 1 M l . il ' 1 ! V. A V.
President Roosevelt has been cMficnoea as uuntung aiwui bucn
Dost-war training for young people of both sexes.
The press dispatcher) said that the congressmen were but
lukewarm over including women in an over-all youth training
program, however.
Although it does not seem wise to include women in the
rj
nrnirrnin nmniilnnrv military trammer of voune men appears
inevitable. Certainly, the United States should stand forever
ready for any kind of action with millions of. youths trained
for any eventuality.
And just as surely, the young men of America will gain
advantage by such training from a military and even more so
from a physical point of view.
The compulsory aspect of the program will be attacked
. . Tl A . 1 . - - A A il 1 ll .
as will be the militaristic stigma, imi it is aDoui time uiat me
American people learned to look at reality and recognize the
taoi ih-At there is no Ruck thiner as an isolated nation, that the
post-war world will not be a guaranteed peace regardless of
the treaty and the reorganization 01 ine worm. 0
Mnitfirv trnmirxr will not hurt anvbodv in war or peace
time. There is no reason to believe, moreover, that compulsory
;i;tnrv tmininor will mflkfl American vouths war minded. It
will make them physically hard; mentally sharp prepared for
any eventuality-
Dear Sir:
In a time when the entire civilized world
is fighting against intolerance and ignorance
your unprovoked condemnation of the Univer
sity of Nebraska engineers, of whom you know
absolutely nothing, was not only disgusting,
but unpatriotic and completely un-American.
We refuse to believe your statements as
representing the feelings of our fellow stu
dents. Rather we believe them to have been
created by you alone because of your own
personal prejudices and jealousies.
We firmly believe that the rank and file
of the University of Nebraska students are in
separably bound to each other regardless of
their particular college and in spite of what
any narrow-minded editor may say to magnify
any differences which may exist.
To clarify our position, your accusations
demand an answer.
You say that we are "the most isolated
bunch on the campus." We are "isolated,"
but not in the manner in which you imply.
We are "isolated" because we are working
night and day to drive into our minds the
knowledge and mental abilities lhat we must
have in order that we shall not fail when our
knowledge is put to test in defence of our
country. The guns and tanks and ships that
in the near future may happen to be designed
by University of Nebraska engineering gradu
ates must not fail because we possessed inade
quate knowledge. We take our education with
deadly seriousness that is often not fully ap
preciated by those who do not know us.
You also say that we represent "Nebraska
nationalism." You can bet your life that we
represent "Nebraska nationalism," but we
also represent United states nationalism anu
world-wide nationalism. We are men of sci
ence and science is not bound by confining
political boundaries.
We believe our education to be comparable
to that obtained by any other good method,
ana we urmiy believe tnereiore that we win
have a very definite place in the post-war
world both in technical and administrative po-
sitions. uur education win enable us to solve
all future problems with sound logic and a
knowledge of conditions as they exist at that
time. Our minds will not be hamnered bv the
ories of history which may not apply logically
to the luture problems.
An engineering education in its entirety
is a process whereby the mind is trained to
solve any problem in a cool, logical, ana
lytical manner. This training is indispens
able to-any educated man including the so
called statesmen.
As a conclusion I wish to remind vou that
we engineers like to call the Daily Nebraskan
our paper too. Further outbursts ot this nature
will force ns to do something concrete to
change either the editor or the policies of the
paper so that it will express more nearly the
opinions of those who support it.
We trust that by this time you see your
mistake and we therefore expect from you a
sincere and complete public apology.
Yours respectiuny,
Howard Westgate, an engineer,
Dear Editor:
It was with great interest that we read the
Daily Nebraskan Sunday editorial. And it is
with just a little amusement that we view its
expressed wish to keep the engineer at his
slide-rule drudgery, while "statesmen" design
the new political and economic world.
We wonder, at times, about this more or
less mythical statesman, schooled in history,
who sees "reality as it is." For it seems to
us that our government is made up of farmers,
businessmen, lawyers and men from every
walk of life, distinguished from their fellows
only by a political ambition, or perhaps by a
genuine interest in government and human re
lationship. And if these men, who no doubt
have taken history in college, remember it no
better than the students who failed so miser
ably on that now-famous history survey, then
(Hallelujah!) the engineer may still have a
chance.
And furthermore, as we look at the na
tional and international mess we arc now in,
we think that a little engineering logic, effi
ciency, vigor and decisiveness, evidenced by
our leaders, would do much to lift the world
from this bloody cyclic rut the same cyclic
rut the history student studies so profoundly.
Finally, may we caution the writer of this
rather amateurish editorial against advising
any group, trade or profession to stick to its
last, while the chosen few are planning the
new order. Rather, we should be duty bound,
according to the whole concept of our form
of government (as any good history course
will teach you, dear editor) to face the prob
lem, think it through to the best of our abil
ity, as individuals, and then vociferously sup
port our beliefs, even at the risk of a pointed
finger of scorn from one who passed His
tory 10.
EDGAR DIXON.
P. S. : A few questions and comments, my
dear editor. Why the dirty digs at the engi
neers this semester! Do you have an anti-engineering
complex! It's possible I may have
misunderstood your motives for writing that
bit, but in that case, your tact is decidedly
open to question.
It would probably flatter you to know how
many engineers read that editorial of yours
(ears burn!), but what would you say for the
percentage of readers in any other college!
Do you know that one of your PHK his
tory majors probably destined to be n
"statcsman" has been ranting of two years
for a bloody revolution, with subsequent fas
cist rule!
Perhaps the engineers are isolated here on
the campus, of necessity in classes, and for
economic reasons or otherwise, socially, but I
think a little study will convince you that
they're tops as civic leaders, or what have
you. Mr. Schacht, himself, is a prime example.
Hut most of all, why try to open old
wounds, on a subject best left at rest even
if yon wouldn't think of any other subject on
which to editorialize, at the last minute before
the deadline.
Editor's Reply . . .
At the insistence of reader Westgate, we apologize for
not saying in Sunday's editorial that:
1. Engineers represent "Nebraska, United States and
World nationalism."
2. History will not hamper the minds of engineers when
future problems must be solved logically.
3. Engineers are isolated because they are working "day
and night" to drive into their minds the knowledge and men
tal abilities that they must have in order that they will not
fail when their knowledge is put to the test in defense of our
country.
The editorial was not intended to cause disunity or any
thing of the kind. The Daily Nebraskan certainly has no
grudge against them, for never before have the engineers re
ceived as much publicity for their various affairs. There is no
reason, moreover, why any paper should be anti-engineer.
The point of the editorial Sunday was this: that at the
peace-table following the war, the most emphasis must be
placed on the statesman, the man with the liberal, broad back
ground rather than the engineer, the man, in the majority
of cases, with the limited specialized knowledge of a technical
field.
There need be no apology made for that point of view.
It is neither disgusting, unpatriotic or un-American.
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