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Senator George Norris, Frank
lin Roosevelt's favorite indepen
dent supporter, shocked the ad
ministration slightly by declaring
he would support Supreme Court
reform only as a last resort.
Democratic leaders had hoped
the veteran Nebraskan, head of
the conference on constitutional
amendment which meets next
month, would hop on the presi
dent's bandwagon, but he pro
fessed to see "danger" in the prac
tice of a president's creating a new
court overnight. He hastened to
add, however, that the "danger"
was a problem of the far future,
nd not anything for which
F. P. R. is responsible.
Norris believes a constitution
al amendment is too uncertain
and too slow of enactment to
meet the present situation. His
remedy is legislation requiring
that more than a majority vote
in the supreme court be required
to hold laws unconstitutional.
His native Nebraska, example,
requires a five to two vote of
the state supreme court to de
clare a law invalid.
Meanwhile, supporters of the
president gave unofficial notice
that there would be no compromise
the president is intent on his
15 judges and intends to stick to
his runs until he cots them or
no-
J..st how serious the congres
sional opposition to this scheme
may be is now impossible to es
timate. Senator Norris" hesitancy
is a boon to anti-Rooseveltians. If
they ran win him over to active
participancy in their cause against
court enlargement, they will spilt
the "solid" front in the senate.
Such a contingency, however, is
only remotely possible. The presi
dent and senator each needs the
other, and the Norris opposition
probably will be erased over the
white house coffee cups.
The president himself, mean
while, remained silent. Question
ed at his semi-weekly press con
ference, Mr. Roosevelt smilingly
replied he would rather not dis
cuss any national problems at
the moment.
Instead, he motored to the
Lincoln memorial where he par
ticipated in the exercises com
memorating the great emanci
pator's birth, placing a wreath
of palm leaves at the statue's
base.
In Washington, Representative
Robinson, fiery Kentucky repub
lican, called for preservation of
the principles of freedom laid
down by Washington. Jefferson,
and Lincoln. "Our country is the
great hope of democracy in the
world," he thundered, as he cas
tigated communism and fascism as
the enomies of free government.
Have We Forgotten
How To Dream?
The men who first broke Nebraska's plains
were adventurers, but not the irresponsible "gentle
men of fortune" who viewed the lawless west as
fertile field for exploitation. Nebraska's pioneers
saw the fertile fields as an opportunity to build
a niidwestern civilization, a chance to develop the
frontiers of a progressive nation.
These men were dreamers. They left their
homes in Ohio and Pennsylvania and the seaboard
states because they had ideals and believed in a
better future. Men who have neither strength,
courage nor imagination are not pioneers.
Nebraska, the state, was but two years old in
1S69, its barren prairies dotted only with stone
and sod farmhouses. Cities were no more than
clusters of frame dwellings around the few, scat
tered trading posts. Education had yet to take its
important place in America's conception of democ
racy, and even the eastern states had not convinced
themselves of the value of the state university as
an institution.
Yet on Feb. 15, 1869, senate file No. 86, intro
duced by E. K. Cunningham, legislator from Rich
ardson county, was passed on the third reading,
after rules had been suspended to insure speedy
action. On the last day of the legislative session,
Governor Butler signed the bill, which provided:
"That there shall be established in this state
an institution under the name and style of 'The
University of Nebraska The object of such in
stitution shall be to afford the inhabitants of the
state the means of acquiring a thoro knowledge
of the various branches of literature, science, and
the arts."
Our pioneers not dreamers? Imagine the cam
pus in its early years. University hall, until 18S6,
was the only building, located on four blocks of
prairie bordering Salt creek, far from the settled
district of Lincoln. As Edna Bullock wrote of its
history:
"Citizens tethered their family cows on the
campus, children picked violets and buffalo beans
there. Chancellor Benton's first report describes
plans for walks, drives, and tree planting, and
mentions consultations with landscape artists
in Chicago, and the final selection of home talent
for the purpose. ... In the chancellor's report in
June, 1875, it is stated that the professor and stu
dents of the agricultural college had planted trees
all around the campus with great care and that
the janitor had admirably tended the grounds,
tho the floral part had several times been cut
down by locusts. Graveled walks led from the
streets to the building, and the grounds were
partially enclosed at one time by a board fence.
As years went on board walks consisting of two
parallel planks about a foot apart were laid a
contribution to the gaiety of the campus litera
ture, as examination of the Hesperian files on
the subject of "coeducational sidewalks," will
attest."
Students and faculty alike were a hardy lot.
With no system of secondary schools to offer
preparation that the university now demands, Pro
fessor Woodberry, acting as examiner, is said to
have asked an applicant for admission, "Can you
read ? On receiving an affirmative reply, the pro
fessor opened the door to higher learning for the
young man with the simple statement, "You pass."
Will Owen Jones, writing about undergraduate
life in the early '80s, drew this vivid picture of the
hardy, ambitious souls who had registered for
Greek, Latin, Old English even Sanskrit and
Gothic, in 1883:
"After a student had provided for his basic
living, had scraped together a few books, and
had turned over his matriculation fee of 5,
which had to be paid only once, he did not feel
uncomfortable if he had nothing left. Life in the
university was so simple and poverty was so
common that it seemed a perfectly normal con
dition. Social distractions in the early part of
my experience were found mostly in the Friday
meetings of the literary societies; in an occa
sional play at the old Centennial opera house and
in a perfect orgy of church attendance on Sun
day. I can name student after student who went
to two preaching services, two Sunday schools, a
Y. M. C. A. session, and the Red Ribbon club
every Sunday, from September till June. ... We
indeed were a serious bunch of youngsters. We
studied mathematics, the classics, history, and a
little science, and then read solid magazine arti
cles for relaxation. I remember that I cut my
first debating teeth over an article by a British
writer who undertook to show that morality has
no scientific basis. At Mrs. Swisher's and later
at Mrs. Park's on Q street, we curried civiliza
tion up one side and down the other at the din
ner table every day, and then gave it a few extra
wipes on Sunday. Society was so simple that
George McLane, who received $50 a month for
janitoring the university building, was treated as
an equal by the professors and as a little more
than equal by the students. He had more money
than the rest of us and wore better clothes, and
the fact that he was making himself round shoul
dered carrying hods of coal to fill the base burn
ers that stood in each recitation room did not
interfere at all with his social eligibility."
Tomorrow the university celebrates its 68th
birthday, quite a different institution from the cam
pus with one building that Chancellor Benton knew
It has undergone great changes outwardly, in a
number of new buildings. But that isn't the whole
story. Buildings aren't the essential requisite for
a university. You can have an institution of learn
ing with Mark Hopkins on one end of a log, and a
student on the other.
Have these 68 years produced another kind of
a change? Are we, the students of 1937, without
the zeal and ambition that characterizes the uni
versity's first class of eight? Charter day is an
excellent time to examine the traditions of our
school, to compare our ideals with those on which
the school was founded. There is little in our stu
dent life that reflects the imagination of those early,
students. Have we forgotten how to dream?
ConirniptDhahJL
Cooperatives
The Wav Out?
W4
. VPv 1
University Daily Kansan
Mary Rutter, Editor.
Except for a few very out
standing individuals, as Marquis
Childs will undoubtedly point out
in his lecture "Co-operatives
j America's Hope" this evening,
j rugged individualism went out
i with the frontier and the coming
of the huge corporation. By him
self the average individual is
helpless.
Recognition of this fact has been
the chief cause of the meteor-like
rise of the co-operative movement
throughout the world and particu
larly of consumers' co-operation.
There is nothing undemocratic
or alien to American traditions in
co-operatives. They are not the
"red" institutions business men
who are afraid they will lo.v busi
ness to them would have the pub
lic believe. They are fundamental
ly democratic in both spirit and
operation.
Nor do co-operatives result in
the elimination of private proper
ty, as reactionaries thruout
America have accused them of
doing, but quite the opposite. They
make for the more extensive own
ership of private property. In
Denmark, for example, co-operatives
have saved private property
for the people and have kept it
from being concentrated in the
hands of a few multi-millionaires
as has happened in many European
countries and as is beginning to
happen here.
Perhaps co-operatives can also
be the American way out.
Hoy! Oh! Ilov!
the food at the
Is Sure Good
Save by Buying
..30 Meal Ticket
for 5.00
2.70 Meal Ticket 2.30
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
THIKTY-SIXTII YEAR
F.DITORIAI. STAFF
Editor Ceorge Pipal
Managing Editors Don Wagner, Ed Murray
New Editort Willard Burney, Helen Pascoe, Jane
Walcott, Howard Kaplan. Morns Clpp,
Barbara RoKwaler,
Sports Editor Ed Steevet
Society Editor Virginia Anderson
ON THIS ISSUE
Desk Editor Wagner
Night Editor Walcott
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager Bob Shellenberg
Assistant Managers Bob Wadhams, Web Mills,
Frank Johnson.
Circulation Manager Stanley Michael
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CMICAaO - BOSTON . BAN FlMICiacO
Lea ANesLsa Portlano Siattuj
I fit 1
: t-lu$wataL ,
r M ,
Dr. A. L. Miller
District 43, Kimball
"American universities are at
fault in not preparing graduates
for governmental service. We
should look to the future and
school our legislators.
Dr. A. L. Miller, physician and
surgeon from Kimball, and repre
sentative of the last of the state's
forty-three districts is speaking
from broad experience. This is hia
first term in the legislature, but
travel through forty-two states
and nations around the world has
given him an opportunity for first
hand study of the problems of
government
"We should prepare our men
for public office as they do in
European countries," he suggest
ed. In referring to the training
received by those of the burgo
meister rank in Germany and
legislators in France, he sees
great possibilities for such
schooling in this country.
"There'll always be a good field
for trained men in American
government."
Reason for the growing neces
sity of training lies in the com
plicated method of living, which
is making more demands for the
government of fhe individual and
industry, according to Dr. Miller.
Accompanying such training.
Dr. Miller proposes scientific study
of governmental tax aeencies.
"There are, today, too many over
lapping taxing agencies. This has
produced an increase in goverh-
mental employes which in turn
means an increase in taxes. Sci
entific study would coordinate all
these.
To show that he practices what
he preaches. Dr. Miller 3 chief in
terest in the legislature has been
economy where economy is need
ed. He has prepared a study of
all state government employes.
their salaries, and classified them
according to departments. He also
introduced a bill to provide for a
non-paid commission which would
study the tax situation in the
state.
It was Dr. Miller who told
the press, upon the introduction
of Miss Philbrick's "mercy-kill
ing" legislation, that the bill
was "being introduced 25 years
too soon." Such a fate he does
not predict, however, for the
university building program bill.
"Most of the legislators believe
in a planned program for the
university, and I think the bill
will receive favorable support."
Dr. Miller's prediction for the
future of the unicameral reflect
ed the faith in the system of the
entire body. "I think we're all
agreed that it's going to work out
to tho benefit of the state," he
declared. "This legislature has
been a body of business men,
transacting the business of the
state, rather than a body of pol
iticians as it has often been before."
"Lost Horizons"
liy John 1 1 ay den
The most powerful plea "gainst
self slaughter" that the modern
theatre has produced.
Presented By The University of
Nebraska
University
Players
February 15-20 Temple Theatre
Reservations at the Temple Box
Office B689 12 rings on 79
Evenings 7:30 Saturday Mat. 2:30
