DAILY NEBRASKAN
Friday, November 6, 1942
Jhsi (Daxhy. Vbd)ha&kcuL
FOKTTf -SECOND YEAR
2
Subscription Rates are $1.00 Per Semester or $1.60 for the College Year.
$2.50 Mailed. Single copy. 5 Centa. Enterest as second-class matter at the
postoffice In Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act ot Congress March S, 1879.
special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103. Act of October 8. 1817.
Authorized September 30. 1922.
Published daily during the school year except Mondays and Saturdays,
vacations and examinations periods by Students of the University of Nebraska
under the supervision of the Publications Board.
Day 2-71S1.
Offices Union Building. 4
Night 2-7193.
Journal 2,3330.
Editor Robert W. Schlater
Business Manager Philip W. Kantor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
Managing Editors Marjorie Bruning, Alan Jacobs
News Editors Gecrge Abbott, Pat Chambcrlin. June Jamieson,
Bob Miller. Marjoiie May.
Sports Editor Norrls Anderson
Member Nebraska Press Association, 1941-43
Victory, Major or Minor?
Newspaper headlines the past few days have carried the
Btory of a withdrawal of the Japanese fleet from the Solomon
islands combat area "signifying a major victory for allied
forces." The Jap withdrawal came after two months of ma
neuvering, carrying out "feeler" attacks, and bringing troops
to reinforce land forces on Guadalcanal and New Guinea. With
the departure of the enemy fleet, the Nip land fighting troops
"were left at the mercy of marine forces on that island and
the bombing efforts of allied planes."
But was it a major victory? Does withdrawal of the
enemy fleet necessarily indicate that? Are those troops on
Guadalcanal "at the mercy . . ." of our forces there? It
would seem, all factors considered, that the "major victory"
was much more of a very minor victory, possibly tinging on
defeat.
While a part of the IT. S. fleet, operating over a thousand
miles to the north of the Solomons,, in the Gilbert island area,
was sinking "one destroyer, one cargo vessel and damaging
two Japanese cruisers." our southern fleet was first hit, hard,
in a daring naval offensive action by the enemy. Net loss:
At least two airplane carriers, at least two destroyers, at least
one naval tug, and several smaller vessels. All of that has
been indicated, not confirmed
Two weeks ago, the Japanese began a major offensive sea
action around Guadalcanal to land troops on that island; to a
great extent, they succeeded. In fact, they succeeded so well
that in ten days marine forces on the island were occupying
an area three miles deep and six miles wide. With a defensive
action on the part of allied forces obviously the only answer,
would not the allied command throw into battle every possible
available reserve?
The sinking of two allied carriers would indicate in itself
that tremendous naval superiority was the chief advantage of
the enemy, while we relied on air superiority to balance the
power. The one very important factor which should not be
lost by readers in considering the battle is the fact that most
of the enemy fleet was intact when it withdrew.
If that fleet is still able to land troops on Guadalcanal to
throw against already worn-out allied forces, or if they can
gain control of allied supply lines thru that superiority of the
sea, it definitely means the battle of the Solomons has only
reached a new stage, has not ended, even temporarily.
When Jap forces on the island surrender or are slaughtered,
when the enemy fleet has been engaged and defeated, or forced
to withdraw completely from the area then a "major victory"
can be claimed. That victory, major or minor, whether it has
come or is still among the things to come, will very probably
determine a swing of the balance of power in the south Pacific.
G. A.
Soldiers, and Coeds
("Joining as it did, the announcement from the dean of
women's office to the effect that "mass entertainment of
soldiers by university coeds is out" was, to put it mildly, some
what of a blow to the local armed forces. Indirectly, if it
points the way 1o precedent thruout the nation, it is a blow
to men of the university, themselves potential material for the
aimed forces.
University women who had participated in the two soldier
eoed dances hld last year thought it a good idea to carry out
a similar plan again this year. Two chief arguments against
the plan, as given to War Council representatives conferring
with the dean, were: That the Lincolnettes, women's group
sponsoring dances for the soldiers, was serving the purpose
well; and that it Mould be unfair to men of the university.
Quite possibly, if the coeds themselves want the dances,
there is little to be said against having them, since it seems
unlikely that two dances, or even several more than that, would
be unfair to university men.
Whether the Lincolnettes are or are not providing suffi
cient entertainment for the soldiers is not important. Most of
the "unfairness" comes in the idea behind refusal on the dean's
part, that university men should be considered. A majority
of the men in the university will be in the armed forces in the
not too distant future, and the fact that a man is taken from
his own environment, moved to some other city, and put in a
uniform should not mean he is a different individual.
Soldiers arc, after all, only human. If they favor dancing
with coeds, it is only a compliment to university women. If
university men are unanimously against the plan, and if the
same is true of university women (and is it?), then the plnn
is just as well left alone. University nun thinking of their
own future, and coeds, thinking of brothers and cousins in sim-
liar DOsniQllS, S110UIU ue. iaK.cn uuw uuiwiuviuutm.
t I By Gene Brad,ey I
Dear Editor,
At the very outset of this short note there
is one point that I should like to make very
clear. I'm not arguing for or against the
"Sweetheart" decision; neither am I arguing
for or against the barbs or the greeks. The
point I wish to make is concerning the present
editorial (and at times not limited to the
editorials) policy of the Daily Ncbraskan.
The Daily Ncbraskan, as it is now set up,
is the only paper on the campus. It is the
tripe read by every student regardless of af
filiation or rank, and because there is no other
reading, it is read by necessity. Therefore its
chief duty, according to the rules set up by
its own profession, is to present unbiased news,
as well as a sound, sensible, constructive edi
torial policy.
The latest few lines scribbled off by one of
the romper editors of the Rag illustrate my
point. The barbs were interested in voting for
a "Nebraska Sweetheart," weren't interested
in who was the "Kosmet Klub Sweetheart."
The Greeks and the Rag did a most beautiful
job of presenting the question from the Greek
tingle. Not enough said, they introduced the
barbs as ravers, tradition-breakers, and actors
capable of putting on an unintentionally hu
morous show. The front page, in manner of
presentation, insinuated that the barbs had no
basis for their arguments.
The coverage and the editorials written
on this story represent the lowest level of com
mon sense presented by a newspaper with the
status of the Rag in quite a while. The paper
is not a political organ (or rather a sad imi
tation), but is a medium of reporting the news
from both sides of any question or conflict.
The material written is supposed to represent
the work of college journalism students, not
would be "Edgar Allen Poes" or copies of
larger party editorials that exist in the daily
papers. Don't forget everybody payed fifty
cents for a newspaper, and it wasn't so that
the romper editors of the Rag could smoke
Luckies instead of Sensations.
And I quote the idea "A disgruntled reader
makes an appeal to the Daily Nebraskau:
Why not spend a little less time running off at
the mouth in criticizing the efforts, moves, or
acts of any party ai.J make an effort to be
come a backbone of any worthwhile movement
of benefit to the campus as well as a decent
newspaper of some interest to the readers.
KENNY GREENWOOD.
Note: This is a fact: Professor Lanti's
statement following the Student Council meet
ing Tuesday night made all the arguments
seem humorous; so the Ncbraskan editorial
writer wrote that it was humorous. Not being
Edgar Allen Poes but young college journalism
students, the Daily staff sometimes fails to be
as objective as possible, but the desire to be
unbiased in the news columns does exist. The
editorial page is open to anyone's opinion;
yesterday's editorial was written by a manag
ing editor since the editor was busy planning
a trip to Chicago for a press convention.
And the romper editors often feel lucky to
have a cigarette at all. Sorry, there's no rake
oft A. J. '
Dear Eidtor,
Once upon a time there was a big, big
forest of all kinds of trees. This was not an
ordinary forest. This forest had political
parties. Now there was one party ran by I
think it was a Douglas Fir, who had all the
evergreens, that kept fighting and smashing
down the Poplar Party.
One year the Poplar Party put up two of
the most beautiful Trees-of-1 leaven you ever
THE SPORTS PARADE.
One thing concerning athletics we know for
a fact: A GOOD sports column is as hard to
find as a Sig Alph in a W.C.T.U. meeting.
FLASH: Last night, the AGR's defeated the
Farm House Fighters in the finals of the an
nual intramural cow-milking contest. When
asked the reason for the failure, the Farm
House sportsmen repfied: "We have no rea
son; we failed udderly."
FLASH: The.Delts yesterday challenged the
Sigma Chis to a fudge-baking contest for next
Tuesday. Unfortunately, the Sigma Chis were
forced to decline. They had made previous
arrangements to play bridge with the DU's.
FLASH:" The Kappas defaulted to the Tri
Delts in the semi-finals of the women's bad
minton tournament. When interviewed as to'
this default, Miss Pat Catlin, chairman, re
marked: "We girls were busy down at Salt
Creek, slugging rats."
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE
WORLD OF SPORTS:
1 On the ag campus. The "Athletics and the
War" committee has announced complete suc
cess in its latest experiments. It has crossed
an owl with a homing pigeon so that the ani
mal can carry night messages.
2 Joe Byler, grid iron-man, stated that he
prefers to play football against men whose
upper limbs have been completely cut off.
When an explanation of this statement was
asked, Byler replied, "Well, they're usually
rather 'armless."
One caution to the would-be sports writer:
Don't tell everything you know. So remem
ber: Writing a sports column is like meeting
Errol Flynn some things you have to keep a
little quiet.
sawed to run for Queens of the two local
lumber companies (both, of course, managed
by Woods Brothers). The idea had always
been to have the whole forest pick the two
trees with the most shapely limbs. But this
year, that Douglas Fir spruced his boys up
and told the forest that the lumber companies
had decided to eliminate politics and to ap
point a Board of nine evergreens and one
poplar to pick the queens. Needless to say,
in a few years, this would have led to an
evergreen domination.
But the Poplar Party had another bud up
its pedicel and proposed that a few changes
he made in the furniture of the Big House
that governed the forest You see every year
the furniture was replaced in the House and
each party tried to have its members elected.
The Chair, I understand, was particularly im
portant. Well, in years past the only seat that
was Poplar for sure was the Love Seat. The
evergreens kept getting the rest, year after
year, by having some of their best hard wood
stay over for another term. This fixed things
so that the Poplars could never get a majority
of the seats in the House.
Well, this year the Poplars proposed that
the furniture staying over should be picked
on the basis of what the whole forest wanted;
not just by what the evergreens wanted. They
proposed that if fifty per cent of the forest
voted Poplar, fifty per cent of the selected
furniture should be Poplar. Several of the
Evergreens even agreed. This proposal was
logical. It was fair. It was democratic. Did
it pass? I do not know. Will it, Poplars?
Sincerely,
BOB DEWEY.
War Stamps . .
(Continued from Page 1.)
room.
Among the booths the Student
Union sales topped the list with
$31. MA and ag ran a close sec
ond and third with 122.00 and
J22.10 respectively. The fourth
booth, Sosh, made sales worth
115.55.
As in past weeks, the booths
were in charge of organized
groups, with, members of each
group selling the war stamps for
a certain length of time. Hans
have been made for the sales to
continue, ail year.
I ' 1 F
i iirrfi'l-'T- -mj
rJLiZMZGZf EST KviZS HKl ICS
so Mm emu rev szzz a
tirrfjk...jtJ, L . L- -.-. -
nnn-rvnrr fin
