1
DAILY NEBRASKAN
Friday, March 14, 194f
fcditohiaL
Horse before the buggy always
If there are to b. senior honoraries, one would pre
sume that men and women would be selected into these
honorariea on the basis of the positions they will fill aa
oniors. For the major activities on the campus for which
recognition should be given are predominately senior ac
tivities. Yet prior to the decision of the Student Council Wed
nesday to consolidate the spring elections and to place
those elections before the Ivy Day tappings and mask
ing, no major position for senior men, and but few for
the women were filled before the Innocents and Mortar
Board selections.
Graduating member of those honorariea therefore
have been compelled in the past to make stabs in the
dark. They have had to more or lets gueaa who the
officers of Koimet Klub, Corn Coba, and Student Coun
cil were to be and who were to fill the publications
positions. Mistakes obviously are not uncommon, and
where mistakes are made some person who becomes
particularly outstanding in his senior year is denied
membership in those societies. Certainly a system of
this sort has the buggy before the horse and has little
logic to stand on.
Whether intentionally or otherwise however, the Stu
dent Council has made a change. This year at least the
hold over members of that Council, the seniors at large,
and the Council officers will be known before Ivy Day.
For that the Council is to be commended.
But if it is desirable to let the horse pull the buggy,
and to choose men to these honoraries on the basis of
their leadership, then it is important for other organiza
tions to follow the Council's lead. It is important for
Koamet Klub, Corn Cobs and all similar societies to name
their officers likewise before the Ivy Day ceremonies.
In all probability most of the officers would be
the same whether the elections were before or after
that date. But in the other cases poor guesses will no
Concentrated politics
Doubling up the offices to be filled at each election
this spring, and cutting the number of such elections in
half should certainly concentrate politics into a rather
short period of time, and leave the rest of the semester
relatively free of the "plottin and plannin."
More will be at stake on election day to be sure, and
all parties can be expected to redouble their efforts to
secure the necessary majorities. But this aspect of the
problem is not particularly bad.
A more representativt vote will be cast on all of
ficers, but particularly on those minor offices which
formerly aroused little enthusiasm and brought few
voters to the polls. More people voting will result in
more genuinely representative officers and will make
election day with its various referrendums of even
greater interest to the campus as a whole.
And finally any squabbles that do arise as a result
of an election will be heard only half as often, and the
partisan antagonism which an election creates will be
allowed to die quickly.
Commentorials
. . . from our readers
Scholarly discussions Won't
involve personal attacks
Dear Editor:
Several days ago I wrote a letter to the DAILY in
which I objected to the nonsense Olson and Ordal labeled
reasoning" used in favor of the passage of the le
lend bill. Subsequently those two historians annotated
their "reasoning- with half-truths and irrelevant com
ment The annotations consisted of diatribes against
nanism, something which I have never defended, and f
laudations of American and British foreign policy, also
something I have never defended.
And in an infantile fashion they indulged in personal
slurs in an effort to discredit the opinion of someone
who disagreed with them. Another similar gentleman, a
freshman, joined in this playground game.
But my sole object in writing this letter is to point
out that it is quite possible to be interested in preserving
the American way of life and still disagree on the bent
way to preserve it. Some Americans feel the best way la
to keep intact and strengthen home defense, to restrict
ur military activity to the western hemisphere, and to
avoid open conflict when possible. Others disagree. Both
are interested in preserving the American way of life. To
Insinuate the contrary is stupid.
I questioned the soundness of the lease-lend bill a
a method and I objected to the nonsense used to sup
port it. There are argument in favor of passage, to be
sure. But they are not empty catch phrases and propa
ganda slogans. To this kind of nonsense I objected. And
1 still do.
Cjrrin Shield.
longer have significance In the naming of Innocents or
Mortar Boards.
Since most of these organizations select their offi
cers early In May it would mean that with but several
weeks alteration in election dales, much of the difficulty
of the past could be avoided. Then will selection to the
honoraries bo logically sound and then only will the horse
be in ita rightful place at the head of th buggy.
THE MAN WITH THE WOE
(After Markham and Henderson)
Kowcd by the weight of scholarship 1 lean
upon my desk and Raze on iny hooks, a hick of un
derstanding in my face and in my eyes the terror
f the damned! Who chained me to this cell of dark
despair, a thing that stirs not. nor can ever hope,
witless and dull, a brother to the dead? Who
ringed me round with schooldom's heavy lore?
Whose was the hand that led through trackless
wastes to term exams this lifeless form of youth?
Is this the thing predestined by my pater to
he ihe jewel of my college class, to garner A's,
amass degrees galore, to gain the glory of Phi lieta
Kap? Is this the dream of dad. who raised hi son
to stalk triumphant through the college world, in
all the depths of human misery there is no shape
more pitiful than this, more thunderous against the
evil ways of pedagogy than me, the silent wreck.
What widening depths between me and my
goal ! Poor child of ill-starred fortune, what to me
are sheepskin and the honored cap and gown? What
the pleasures of Commencement Day, what the out
stretched hand of smiling dean, the summer's rest,
the days beyond exams? Through this dread shape
all suffering student's look; youth's tragedy is that
torpid frame. Through this dread shape marticulate
the betrayed, defenseless, tortured, sinking to the
earth, crying protests to the pedagogs who made
them thus, a protest that is also prophecy.
O masters, teachers, profs in every course, is
this the product of your noble art, this unenlight
ened, feeble-minded dolt? How will you ever kindle
once again in me the spark of youth's enthusiasm,
how give me back the rest for higher learning with
which 1 set forth in your institution? How will you
ever brine into my eyes the light of hope, the light
of understanding?
O musters, teachers, profs in every course, how
will the future reckon with me, this man? How will
you answer to my parents proud when home 1 stag
ger after term exams? How will you answer to me
myself when finally I meet the fatal hour? How
east from off your heads my silent course when.
eeing my betrayal at your hands. 1 place upon your
desk a blank exam, the finl product of a broken
Diind ?
ODE TO AN ELEPHANT
(After Ogden Nash and Jacob Ad'er)
Once upon a time there was an elephant. tOne of
those animals like the giraffe, that, the first time you
see one, you say there can't be such a creature.) Any
how, one of them is tho feature of this tale. He was
walking through the woods one day looking for what
ever elephant drink when they aren't in a circus getting
water from a pail, when he saw a lion walking, and he
(the elephant) drew himself up proudly and started
talking:
"Runt," said he with a grunt. "You zoological pigma,
you microscopic enigma, you worthless molecule, you
utterly unimportant and uninteresting poor excuse for
an animacule, how caji you be so small and insignificant
when I am so big and magnificent?"
And the lion trembled from tail to mane, and he
undoubtedly would have folded up his tent and silently
slunk away except that he didnt have a tent, so he
just silently slunk away.
And the elephant, with a proud sway of his silly
looking nasal appendage, went on looking for more prey
for his bandinage. Pretty soon he came to a tiger,
walking on the banks of the Niger, doing whatever tigers
do when they walk on the banks of the Niger. And
be gave forth with a trumpet and canter, and delivered
himself of a lot more of the same old banter, aa follows:
"Tiger," said ha, "you moth-eaten, jail-bird skinned
Lilliputian excuse for my abuse, you minute infinitesimal,
you diminutive decimal, you microscopic midget, you tiny
tiny wiget how can you be so Tom Thuroby, not to say
crumby, when I am so hugely gigantic, and throw all
of the beasts of the jungle into panic?
And, of course, the tiger quickly disappeared from
the banks of the Niger, trembling and dashing about
helter-skelter in his overpowering haste to reach shelter.
And his Gargantuan Grace of the overgrown face, big
as a planet, gay as a gannet, stalked on and on through
the jungle looking for more victims and beginning to
get discouraged when he saw a mouse.
He spake: "Louse," (Trumpeting loudly and waving
his trunk proudly) "You undersized insect, you paltry
particle, you completely, punily atomic article, all of the
word in the thesaurus that mean bttle could join in
Behind
V ? the
vh! j News
V 1
Ordal
(Ilium
II Duco at the front
Reports from Athens Indicate that Mussolini himself
is in Albania personally directing an attempt to aalvago
something out of the ill-fated venture against Greece.
Though Tl Duce ha been reported near the front
for almost a week, his presence does not seem to have
much effect on his troops, for dispatches from there de
clare that the Italians have been unable to gain a foot of
ground in the last week and place casualties during that
time at more than 30,000.
Reports keep coming out of Sofia and other nari
controlled news sources to the effect that the Greeks will
put up only a token resistance against a peace dictated
by Adolf Hitler. No substantial evidence has come from
Athens, however, that the Greeks are contemplating any
thing but vigorously continued warfare. High Greek
spokesmen have emphatically declared that Greece is re
solved to wage war with Italy to a victorious conclusion.
Reports that General Wavell's army of seasoned vet
erans is disembarking in force in Salonika, if tme, indi
cate that the British and the Greeks definitely plan to
resist any German military move against Greece.
Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front the English are
continuing their efforts to line up Yugoslavia and Turkey
on the side of the Greeks. Bellicose Turkish itatement
seem to indicate that the Turks plan to use their two
million bayonets in Balkan warfare if the Germans make
a further military thrust toward the Dardenelle.
In Yugoslavia axis pressure appears to be dominant.
The Yugoslav crown council met Thursday to give final
instructions to its representatives before they left for
Vienna to see Hitler. Many news correspondents expect
that Yugoslavia will sign as an axis partner, probably
on Saturday.
theHI
r Beneath the
Golden Dome
by Art Rivin
Well, L. B. 304 is dead. But let no one say that it
didn't die with it boot on. Unofficially, the government
committee considered the measure entirely correct in
principle but unfortunately impractical at this time.
Tho act was a proposed constitutional amendment
introduced by Senator Martin Mischke, which would
change the set up of tbe legislature. It embodied three
main provisions: to raise salaries of the legislator from
J672 to $1,800 per year; to increase the number of sen
ators; and to elect legislators for four year, staggered
term.
Everyone present praised the theory of the bill.
Speaking for the Tax Payers' association in Uhalf of
increased number in the legislature, one witness de
clared that under the present system none of the legiala
torstors have time to do their work thoroughly.
A frequent witness before the committee. Professor
Senning who is chairman of the university s political sci
ence department practically sealed the fate of the bill
although he was speaking for it. He told the committee
that staggered four year terms waa probably in the in
terests of better government and that an increase in pay
might bring more competent legislators.
But he would not commit himself as to whether he
thought the bill should become law. After committee
members had aa much as demanded that Professor Sen
ning tell them how he would vote in their position, he
said, "I would vote against the bill."
The political scientist explained that the young uni
cameral body had not yet had time to let its present
rules and customs settle and that any tampering with
the set up at this stage of tho game would be unwise.
Evidently the committee members agreed with him for
the bill was defeated in short order.
a chorus, and not express with the least success how
altogether unutterably miscroamicaJly woe you be. How
can you be so Infinitely small, a nothing-t-all when I
am so big and strong and prodigiously tall?"
The mouse didn't even wink, but instead to the ele
phant! immeasurable astonishment, sat down to think.
And he thought and thought and finally he squeaked in
his voice like a tiny clock-tick: "I guess maybe it's be
cause I've been sick. Would you like to see my operation?"