Page 2 Lincoln, Nebraska Editorial Comment Yes, There Is A Santa Claus Throughout the centuries men have written great social doctrines and codes for living. A multitude of these works have survived and remained ever applicable to present day Situa tions. And what is being thought about and written today may also obtain a similar place la the literary hall of fame of the future. This literary ability is not confined to men in one field but includes scientists, philosophers, politicians, psychologists, poets, essayests and newspapermen. Each has contributed some great, work or works to the world society and has received recognition for his efforts in relation to the degree of social acceptance. Such was the case of an editorial writer on the 1897 staff of the New York Sun Francis P. Church. On Sept. 21 of that year Church wrote an editorial which has remained a classic on the subject of Christmas and Santa Claus. Perhaps many of you will remember it better as an answer to a letter writen by Virginia O'Hanlon, a child who wrote to the Sun for a solution to a typical childhood problem. So, because it is ' Christmas and because Church's editorial hits so near to home in the minds and hearts of many people to whom Christmas has a special meaning, The Nebras kan reprints the famed editorial which was entitled "Yes, There Is a Santa Claus." Dear Editor, I am Eight years old. j Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says "If you see it In the Sun it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon. Dear Virginia, Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not compre hensible by their little minds. All minds, Vir ginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world around him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world, which not the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus? Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. Logic kd Nauseam Resolved: That God Has a Place on Campus. The headline, which appears in the news columns of The Nebraskan introducing church news to student readers and which has been the church column headline since Sept. 25, 1953, has currently been under fire in The Nebraskan Letterip columns. - The Nebraskan has not commented further editorially for several reasons. First, because the headline does not violate Journalistic ethics of editorializing in the news columns as has been accused. Second, because we belive that the headline has been tested of its acceptability by the fact that, after a year's publication, it has only recently been attacked. And third. The Nebraskan felt that there was actually no argument because ethically tha headline violates nothing except the per sonal views tof a few students. , Let us say that the following remarks are in explanation of the headline's use, rather than in defense of it for The Nebraskan regards its answer as clarification of policy. Beginning with the Declaration of Independ ence the United States was established "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence," and the authors assembled "ap pealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions." Therefore, the United States as set forth in the Declaration of Independence was established as a nation with a majority belief in a Supreme Being, that being God or whatever name one chooses to give Him. The preamble to the Constitution of the State of Nebraska states: "We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom . , .," and the Constitution itself provides that "All persons have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences . . . Religion, morality, and . knowledge (however) being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the Legis lature to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoy ment of its own mode of public worship, and to encourage schools and the means of instruc tion." With these two major points of reference we feel we have given a satisfactory explanation of the social and political acceptance in our nation and state of a Supreme Power a God. And according to journalistic ethics what is acceptable to tha majority of society and pro Tided allegiance and protection in documents of law is acceptable for publication in news columns without the fear of editorializing. You may note that the above quoted state ments specifically state "according to the dic tates of their own consciences" and "its own mode of public worship." The documents do not set forth any law or suggestion as to what degree or in what form worship takes. How ever, it does establish the object of worship whatever the degree or form as being God. , The logic of the attackers is based on degree of belief. The Nebraskan believes that to what extent a person accepts a God is his own per sonal matter. To point out the various degrees of belief on our campus: some of the religious houses on campus feel that the headline infers that God is thrown in and barely included among the many other activities on campus, that He has only a small portion of the student interest. In other words God does not have large enough place on campus. The opposite view -of the persons who attacked the headline in the Letterip column presents the argument that for God to have a place on campus is a mere supposition and that there are those students who believe that God does not have a place on campus, and those who do not believe in a God at all. The Nebraskan headline does neither dictate what place on campus God holds nor what place God should hold. Therefore, logically there is no attempt to influence students' degree of belief. But the headline does refer to God. That there is a God and that He is on campus is upheld by society's accepted faith in general and documents of law specifically. An attack upon the headline as a quarrel over the degre of faith the campus has in a God should be confined to philosophers, theo logians and speculators. The Nebraskan does not attempt to invade these realms. Our policy stands that God Has a Place on Campus is not an editorialization in that our nation, state and society are were founded upon guidance and protection of a Supreme Being God the proof of acceptance evidenced in documents of law and judged as a common truth. J. H. Two-Fifths Headache The arrival of the second semester, or any semester for that matter, always brings prob lems with it. However, the second semester of the 1954-55 school year might be the beginning of what will become the number one student headache class scheduling. For those who have taken time to read the front page of the class schedule this problem is readily apparent. For those who have not taken the time, this sentence will serve some thing other than a repititious function: "Uni versity regulations require every student to schedule two-fifths of his classes in the after noons andor on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday , mornings." This ruling is an old one which fell in disuse some years ago and which has been revived this year. The reasons for its disenterment is simple: too many students take their classes between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Their love of these hours and these days has caused, according to the Office of Registration and Records, a shortage of open classes and class rooms at these times. The ruling will be enforced this semester on an individual basis; that is, students with all or more than 80 per cent of their classes scheduled for MWF might be forced to change their schedule to include TThS or MWF after noon classes. No definite schedule has been established de fining the basis on which exceptions will be made. Enforcement of the two-fifths rule will be the responsibility of a few persons who will allow exceptions or force changes on their own interpretations of the individual case. Floyd W. Hoover, director of Registration and Records, has shown outstanding ability on coping with the problems and difficulties in setting up a registration system with so few snarls as is in operation now. He has attempted a solution to an obvious problem. However, the solution as it stands now is in complete, even dangerous, in that no definite policy for enforcing the two-fifths rule has been set up. Students could go a long way in helping themselves by making suggestions of how a well-intended, necessary program, such as the . twe-fifths rule, can be carried out. The Ne braskan "Letterip" column and staff members are an excellent channel for such suggestions. T. W. JJw ykJbhadJicuv FIFTY-SECOND YEAR liSLblfiSj j'"1" tMm " Elena ben Associated Collegiate Press ' EDITORIAL STAFF IatercoUcxiate Press Koiot.. ,. t Wmx BejjrsstBtativet National Advertising Service, iti,r..V.'.V:.V::.V.V.V. '." J"f"KE5 Incerrtorated Nw Editor .. . . . Mrtuu Umum wwiiaw Cop Editor Brne Bnurmaan, IMcto Kellman, T1 grim m rtb4 kr armtoim du (Jut- Mrl!y Mitehrll m!!) tH trmmum m iiiiiih m intaewr iri u4 'Mrt "Hot Bowar Vus iworMW) Accord! to Artkta U of tha Br-Lawt rtur Mitoc ! Hw mm 'tl NluKMiM aa4 KiBlalfUnHl to Ik Ar Editor (inn BarrhftPd er4 (" "11 ll CM tfwired Ue of lb (fight Jiewi Editor MmUW MJtcatU h,4 um rakiiattm sdr CM tarUdktloa hall ha REPORTERS fm trm diurnal conlu oa ttM pmtt at tha Board, ,".. . . , aafea aart at aa aMbr at tfea fecalo at ttoa Boartr Drtpe. rrr4 Daly, Joanna 4ws: Bsha Stiff- rlJh a fmbmt Tot tha auttot Tba NabraAaa hl. Rorw Henkl. Ladrraca Swlxwr, .alia Marr. Park aW?S2S vSwwSwTlof rVJttwT aw or ia Sharp. Ja DeVllbl.a, Barbara Sullivan. Eleanor Plar, -h . a u -iim.cfT tiw auHaa Boat, Bon Harlnakl, Lillian Haaeoolldce, Annrtta Nltaa, 1." " 2,lTTV,m'.V. I Cjnnta Hurat Both. Broa. Marten, thraa Oa a weak dartna ha araool raar aicaat oaatla. Jeaa Jonnaon, Kar Lwaoa. Tm(aa and ananilnartoa atrtoa. aa teat it aahltshad BUSINESS 8TAFF awuw A a gift by tha tialrtt at anratka and tha , ,. ZarvMoa at tha t ommlttra oa rJl.rtwt Pabllcaltoa. Baninma Maaaaef Chat - V. .After la Bale- Manaaara Bra Bo,?nt. Barbara Kick. lZ "a- aaa ar. of torr-. M.rrl , , ""v aa at avauai rata at aaitata rrvxded lor ta Bcctioa UnulaUaa Hanatiar cU nuief On Behalf Of Scrooge Dickens' Meanie Called 'Visionary' By DAVID E. OWEN (Thla writing la reprinted from tha December 1C53 issue of the Harrard Alam aaa. Tha author a professor of history at that University, tint made his defense of Hcroota'a attitude toward "l'aletime" la a speech to tha Signet Society several years ago.) In this uneasy age of changing perspectives, literary and otherwise writers thought to have been per manently buried suddenly re emerge as significant figures. Oth ers who were once classics fade into semi-oblivion. And if authors, why not their characters? I venture to salute the holiday season with a word on behalf of - one of these characters, an unrec ognized hero of nineteenth-century literature, a kind of finctional Leon idas at Thermopylae of Old Guard at Waterloo. He yielded in the end, but only after the powers of the supernatural world had been turned loose on him. Granted that ad miration for this lovable old ec centric is a highly personal emo tion of mine. I don't expect every one to share it, but, no doubt, most people respond more sympa thetically than I to the approach of Christmas. Put me down at the outset as the spectre at the Christmas feast, the jarring note in the Christmas carol. One must admit that Ebenezer Scrooge was not without his weak nesses. He was a bit on the brusque side and short on urban ity. His conversational range was fairly limited. ("Humbug" was a less than adequate comment on the Christmas saturnalia that he was doing his best to resist.) But Scrooge was blessed with a cer tain acuteness of perception, at least until his flagrantly synthetic refomation. He could detect an avalanche when it was merely a little snowslide. Christmas at the Cratchits' may have been harm less and Jolly enough, but it was the beginning of the road that would lead to the office party. Noth ing could have more shrewdly an ticipated the emotions of millions of latter-day parents than Scrooge's exclamation, "I'll retire to Bed lam." Now obviously Dickens didn't like Scrooge and certainly didn't under stand him. He assumes that Scrooge's tastes are unnatural and misanthropic, whereas in essentials they will strike many of us as being merely sensible. For example, Dickens seems to think it strange that the old man doesn't warm to the prospect of dinner at his nephew's. But nephew, though well-meaning enough, was a hearty type, and nephew's wife, possibly suffering from a thyroid complaint, seems to have been one of those bouncing hostesses who was de termined that all should have a good time, whatever the conse quences. It was not only nephew and wife who offered the hazard, for wife's female relatives, apparently six or eight strong, converged on the par ty. Poor Scrooge suffered not only from indigestion but especially from indigestion contracted at large family dinners. At nephew's, while sitting around stuffed and torpid, he would be easy prey for the amateur musician and parlor game enthusiast. The former, Scrooge's niece, played some agree able innocuous airs on the harp. Then the sisters and the cousins and the aunts tackled the game issue in earnest forfeits, blind man's bluff, and the whole deadly armory. As long as Scrooge was asleep and convoyed by the Spirit of Christmas Present, he thought it all great fun. But, awake and in his right mind, he regarded it as an unutterable bore. To Dickens, preferring to sit on the sidelines while parlor games were in prog ress was a sign of a perverse taste. .To others it Implies ordin ary intelligence. I have said that Dickens didn't like and didn't understand Scrooge. But Scrooge didn't like Dickens and understood him only too well. Dickens, he foresaw, was creat ing the modern Christmas under the appealing fiction of the "old fashioned Christmas" and using him, Scrooge, as the instrument. He was correct in his suspicion that the genuine old-fashioned Christ mas had little in common with the marzipan-covered fiesta of Dickens. ... At the time Scrooge made his appearance, mid-winter peace was still hanging in the balance. Social tranquility was not Irretriev ably lost for the month of Decem ber. The rowdy-religious Christ mas had never recovered from the regime of the Puritans and the Vic torian Christmas had not yet come to full flower. (However) Scrooge found himself an unwilling participant in the creation of a modern myth. Wash ington Irving had already launch ed the old-fashioned Christmas in America, and now Dickens was preaching the same gospel even more persuasively to the Victorian middle classes. During the 1840's the ingredients of the old-fashioned Christmas were assembled in England. From Hol land, probably by way of the United States, came St. Nicholas, alias Santa Claus, who in due course was assimilated into the English tradition of Father Christ mas. Within a few years the av arice of children and tradesmen was to be further stimulated by the introduction of the Christmas stocking, persuroably from Ger many via America. As for the first Ckistmas card, that lacked only a month of being a twin of Scrooge himself, to the old man's considerable embarrassment. Scrooge, being a persistent fel low of long experience in the world, was disturbed by what he saw de developing . . . Ebenezer could that this comparatively unprelent- ious Christmas of the mid-40 s would presently get out of hand. Dickens he pictured as a kind of Victorian sorcerer's apprentice Frankenstein is entitled to take the Christmas vacation off who was releasing forces over which he would have no control, and he had even less regard for Dicken's ag ents. . . . The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, an untrustworthy spook, had gravely misrepresented the Christmas of the future. Scrooge cannily suspected that the Ghost was not telling the whole truth and that the future Christmas might well turn out to be an intol erable strain on digestion and dis position, even on the social fabric itself. Did the Ghost intimate that, a hundred years hence, the elec tronics industry would move in on the old fashioned Christmas and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" would blare from loud speakers from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon? Was there any warning of that gruesome compromise be tween food and drink, the sticky Christmas eggnog? Scrooge's premonitions, most of us would concede, have been amply justified. The propaganda for the from the pen of Dickens was to have consequences far different from those which its author in his innocence had sought. Scrooge's clarity of vision needs no further emphasis. The argument must now be shifted from his head to his heart. Was he, in fact, the flinty miser Dickens describes? . . . Though by no means. in different himself to pounds, shill ings and pence, Scrooge was out raged by the notion of putting price tags on nostalgia. Whole sale present-giving, he was aware, formed no part of the traditional English Christmas. But from Christ mas boxes for servants and trades men, through sweetmeats for the children, and Christmas annuals, it would be only a step to pres ents tor everybody, the principle of saturation-bombing to holiday observance. To accept Scrooge as an incip ient humanitarian admittedly re quires an exercise of the imagina tion; Ebenezer, being an English man, did not wear his heart on his frayed sleeve. (However) our pilgrimage to the austere quart ers of Ebenezer Scrooge has, I hope, made him seem a less repellent figure. . . , Plainly the time has come for the twentieth-century Scrcog ians to rebuild Ebenezer's repu tation. Perhaps a formal organi zationsay "Scroogians for Holi day Inaction" is indicated. There must be, many disaffected adher ents of Saint Nicholas who could be easily won over to Saint Ebenezer, especially u they were not re quired to embrace his Total Ab stinance Principle. Friday, December 17, 1954. 'Summer Of Happiness' AAovie Lauded As 'Beautiful' By ELLIE GUILLATT Once in a great while a movie is filmed which is so exquisitely beautiful in every facet that one feels quite unable to discuss it ade quately. Such a movie is "One Summer Of Happiness" now show ing at the State Theatre. Although spoken in Swedish and "under standable," in the sense, of words, only through the medium of English subtitles, I felt that the movie might have been even more beau tiful had the subtitles been omitted entirely. For the simplicity, the sensitivity with which this ' story was filmed, gave it a universal appeal far beyond the immediate cogency of verbal expression. I wish I had the space to take each scene individually and discuss Jt; but since I don't, I will merely say that, in general, the photog raphy was done with infinite taste and discretion, the acting was han dled with restraint and intelligence, and the story was the quintessence of simple and poetic innocence. In regard to the photography, I felt that it so far outclassed the average run of films that there would be no ground for compari son. Every shot said something relevant to the story, yet nothing was grandiose; the subtle studies in human character given in the very first scene of the movie, for example, are worthy of the Grand Prize awarded this film at the Cannes Film Festival. The acting and the story must be discussed jointly, since they are ultimately dependent upon 'each each other for life. The acting had the quality of intense un derstanding that can only be achieved by artists, and the story CLASSIFIED ADS Butck Convertible; 1941, good conrtition. Radio and heater, good rubber. Just what you have been looking for t a price you can pay. Draftee, must sell. See It at 1021 Que Street, Laundrymat, 5-8108. Riders to Chicago Share expenses Leaving Dec. 22 Return Jan. 2. CalT 8-9679 (after 9:30 p.m.) Riders wanted to New York for Christ mas to share expenses. Ph. 6-3714. they acted was one of the raresl pieces oi Deaucy one couia imag. ine the story of love between the souls of the eternally and tragi, ally young. It was the story of innocence in a world of self-right.4 eous hypocrisy,, of delicate human emotion amid the grossness of over civilized ignorance. This is an hon. act mniria on1 fM that , . J c son, it is misunderstood. t My main criticism lies not with the film itself, but rather wih the audience which hooted and snig gered at its loveliness. Perhaps I saw it on a poor night, but I left the theatre very much disgusted by the audience reaction. The mov. ie was advertized as "for adults only" but the advertisement should have read for adult minds only. To reduce this film to the level of pornography is, in my eyes, to reduce the tenderness, the nobility, the immortality of man to a ludici rous and slighly Jaded joke. Toulouse-Lautrec once said, when accused of painting lewd pictures, that the obscenity was not in his work but rather in the mind of the spectator. For me, the hoots and cat-calls, obviously an expres- sion of vicarious excitement, which I heard in the climaetic moments of this film were proof of the high degree of adolescent thinking in the minds of those 21 and over. "One Summer of Happiness" has all the poignant, momentary beauty of innocence; it is pure poetry and if viewed with a sens, itive, intelligent mature attitude, it is bound to touch the deepest, most responsive emotions in the soul. 11 I STARTS SUNDAY DANA ANDRKW 'THREE HOliRS TO KIIX" CHICKEN DELIGHT - f PHONE 5-2178 vrjL Free vCAjT Delivery m We Now Serve 135 Chicken Delight Dinner Chicken Delight fiC Snack y Shrimp Delight Dinner Shrimp Delight Snack 135 83 Open Seven Days A Week 115 So. 25th. St We Give Green Stamps Lincoln' Buiy Department Store The Store of Practical Gifts Open Every Moru & Thurs. 9 til Christmas 10 to 9 J r' yj-T A ' I fir. , v 1 f t Vj f H t N l 'flA A ll Vjfe We have gone all lengths to please her this Christma "TmfMlES" Broadcloth Pajamas Fine quality fabrics with embroidered contrasting balloons . . In proportioned lengthn 32 to 34 Tiny 34 to 40 Tall 32 to 40 Average Meticulously tailored to fit without a flaw. So sav with their colored balloons and pretty background colon of lime yellow, aqua or coral. A. The Pedal Puther Si 32 to 38 It. The Bermuda Short Sigei 32 to 40 (Average, only) C, The Conventional S!rg 32 to 40 GOLD'S Lingerie Second Floor