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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1955)
2 Wednesdoy, Moy 4, 1955 THE NEBRASKAN i -N :i 1 1 ;.V4 t Ncbraskan Editorials 'fcrjress Vs. 7raJifon Spring is the poets overly used thesaurus, the farmers' long awaited work season and the average person's font of creation. Spring can stimulate to action the dormant functions of nature and it can also stimulate to constructive action the individual. But as the old saying goes, in a perverted form: "If it be Spring can Winter be far be hind?" This may be applied to the campus and the individuals which move and live on it. Each Spring there develops within organizations a sense of improvement as evidenced in inter views which determine candidates for office or the officers themselves. A typical question in every interview is "Do you have any ideas for the improvement of this organization?" Those aspiring to candidacies anticipate this ques tion and probably spend several hours before the interviews forming an answer which they think will Satisfy the interviewers. The pity of this is that the ideas very seldom get beyond the room in which they were expressed and the organizational machinery reappears in the Fall identical or nearly so to its former self. Change is Inevitable in any material thing and it can come either gradually or cataclysmic as an evolution or a revolution. But when the encouragement is present and change is a sought after criteria for leadership it is amazing how year after year students obtain positions be cause of ideas which they never intend nor suc ceed to fulfill. This is the case at the Univer sity. New ideas and suggestions are constantly asked for by students and Administration. New fields of thought in academic work are encour aged and promoted. There exists an almost compelling attitude among students that a bet ter grade may be obtained by expounding on their own theories, presenting new interpreta tions of history, political sciences, English, etc., until they discover the falseness of the "pro motion campaign." Then they find that instruc tors will not tolerate a perversion of history. The definitions that have been established in the past are immovable obstacles to the progressive thinking student. English literature has only one interpretation that of the instructor. Organiza tion officers frown on underlings who would sug gest a plan of action which departs from tradi tion or an already officer-formulated plan. Stu dents plagued by this frustrating enigma have every reason at some time to question the validity of organizations or of studies them selves. It is true that progress and tradition are es sential to the firm moulding of a society, but when one hinders the other by an excessive em phasis, an unbalance occurs which has, as evi denced in hist ry, caused the decay and decline of once firmly established institutions. New ideas, intertwined with logic and practi cality should not be accepted eagerly in an interview and discouraged in practice. And those ideas expressed to impress others should not be abandoned for the less difficult estab lished pattern the work of someone else. Tolerance of new ideas is necessary by in structors so that students will continue to think in terms of progress and not staid and stolid dogmas of the past or of a person. - Moderation is necessary in tempering the progressive with the tradition and if exercized will prove the champion of the future the future based on the new ideas of today. J. H. B. Afterthoughts Happy Birthday The Union is certain to be overflowing with students Friday when it celebrates its 17th birthday. In addition to the "Good Old Days" decora tions and old-time activities, the slashed food prices in the Crib no doubt will attract multi tudes. And the multitudes may wish the Crib were larger and the celebration were longer. Pre-birthday congratulations to the Union. And orchids to you for your low prices and imag inative planning. Organzed Confusion Recent development in Southern Viet Nam are quite confusing to say the least. The ingredients to political chaos include the private armies of two religious sects, an out law band headed by a gangster who became so powerful that he bought the police of Saigon, Communist agitation, a chief of state lounging on the Riviera, two divisions of French troops and a confused, but surprisingly victorious pre mier. Over the weekend it seemed as though each new press release would state that Premier Diem was in, Bao Dai was out, or vice versa. Things are relatively peaceful now in Viet Nam with the government only having to contend with the religious sects. Communists and 750, 000 refugees. Campus Circuits' Right To Know Challenged Knowledge Necessary To Survive From Colliers Mr. Harry A. Levinson, of Beverly Hills, Cali fornia, has lately been involved in a row with the United States government. Because it is not Mr. Levinson's fight alone because 165, 000,000 other Americans are deeply involved along with him the matter at issue bears exami nation. Mr. Levinson protested the Postmaster Gen eral's seizure of a volume of Aristophane's Lysis trata which had been mailed to Mr. Levinson, a dealer in rare books, by the Hammersmith Bookshop in England. The Postmaster General told Mr. Levinson that the volume "contains numerous passages which are plainly obscene, lewd and lascivious in character and which are well calculated to deprave the morals of persons ... and almost equally certain to arouse libidi nous thoughts in the minds of the average, nor mal reader." After Mr. Levinson went to court to challenge the validity of the law under which the book had been seized, the Post Office De partment finally gave it back. But it did so only after receiving "assurance ... that the book in question is not for general distribution and is in tended for delivery to a collector of rare books." In other words, a seasoned rare-book collector might be trusted with it-but not the "average, normal reader." Lysistrata is certainly a frank-spoken play; whether its passages are "well-calculated" to de prave morals depends upon what was in Aris tophanes mind when he wrote it; whether it is certain to arouse libidinous thoughts in the minds of the average, normal reader" depends upon one's assessment of the character of the average, normal reader. But there is much more involved here than fee merits or demerits of the Greek classic. This is a time when censorship, in general, is enjoying a vigorous revival in this free land. More and more people are telling more and more other people that their tender little minds are Qt able to weather the shock of exposure to this or that idea. The solicitude is not confined to the area of crdfcsary morality. This is a time when, in spite of the fragile quality of world "peace," the American people were for one year denied the vital knowledge that a hydrogen bomb had been exploded which was able to wipe cut a whole state. This is a time when, in the face of the most cunning and complicated ideo logical threat ever raised against freedom, a teacher takes his professional life in his hands if he tries to acquaint his students with the nature of the Communist threat. This is a time when, in the face of an unprecedented need for this democratic people to be informed, the pub lic was banned last year from 41 per cent of Congressional committee sessions where public taaaaesB of the most critical importance was be ing transacted. It is a time when a copy of Marx's Das Kapital under a scholar's arm raises fearful suspicions of his loyalty; when the Soviet newpapers Pravda and Izvestia are banned from the mails; when a Midwestern lady can com mand a scattering of respectful applause by denouncing Robin Hood as a Communistic tract. Censorship is not new. What is new, and alarming, is its increasingly casual acceptance by a people with a venerable tradition of liberty. Freedom came to the Western World, and to America, because some men dared to assume that ordinary people had in them the innate stuff to be noble in their own righU-the ability to discern, to exercise that restraint and judg ment which had until then been considered the exclusive endowments of their "betters." One of these men, John Milton, declared 300 years ago that "our faith and knowledge thrives by exercise ..." He wrote that if all judg ments were left to the censors, "to be a com mon, steadfast dunce would be the only pleas ant life." This is no time for America to be breeding a community of common, steadfast dunces. The very format of a free nation, spreading the responsibility for stewardship among all the people, demands the steady, purposeful develop ment of uncommon men with the grasp and the character to make sound decisions in the beat of crisis. How shall we deal with the present crisis? Not by making a virture of ignorance. Five hundred million Chinese followed 200,000,000 Rus sians into the Communist trap because they didn't know it was oaded. They went for bait labeled "security" and "land reform" and "prog ress" because they lacked the experience and perception to recognize the phoniness of the promises. The character, the competence, the rugged ness demanded of our kind of uncommon man are not grown in a hothouse; the facts of life and politics aren't learned in A Child's Garden of Verses. They are developed only by practice in appraising 4n sorting right from wrong. There is far less peril in books whether plain spoken classics or claptrap comics than in the American family's failure to ingrain youth with the sense to discriminate between quality and trash. There is less reason for concern over young people's exposure to Das Kapital than over the chance that they will grow up innocent of the fraud it preaches. There is less ground for worry about any American's" contamination by Lysistrata than about his degradation by a clique of censors who believe themselves to be made of some special kind of clay. This is a poor time to tolerate tinkering with the peo ple's right to know, when knowledge is a condi tion of survival. Tha Ncbraskan rSTTY-EECCKa TEAS - ks&m Assgdaied CeEcgUte Press LissseSeslst Press . SresedUilro KsSasfii MtwtMat Service, taeerswjrstaS Tea Sfsfersw&sa ft taisihi by atndatita at taa Cat iwc.'y ( ffobiMks eAsr tba autbwlzatioa at taa Con n htndntH Attain m mm xprwstMi at ctudeot t :c. Fvtrtieaifcww nr tStm Jurisdiction ml the Suh--, :.-. a MhJm rubllmAUm mmrnU mm tret frora i i mm!!:) M Urn pert rf th gutteommittea, or ea v vur of mar axanbar af Ik tmealtr ml Otm Cntrer. '?, a wi th nut of i kimi oimrtda tte liirtwraltjr. 't " 'ir, ( iu rnrMiM nail mrm "" rw. v . i p .,.! t'my say, w t ta aa printed. ED ITO RIAL STAFF tfdttnr 4a I ft Mortal Pan EaWar aa ftawk Mumwtni kxutet Martaam Hmm hm EiMtor Uica fevaaaa UpmrtM fdttor Hraea ttnnranaa Caar ICaMata frr4 Dab, Komr Hwfcla, aa jMHca. Martin MtteteU ( Edifnr .......... Lmm torn in MtM Mem Kdtttjr. . . . . Sam Jenaea bwrnni . . . rtmrty Irttmm, Jaamta Jwfraa, Hmbt ieiMrixrta. Ijacterac Swlrrar, Jntta Mart, Kara Mhara, Jm DeVUbiM, Harrwa Hullhraa, tfMaaar Pilar, Peaty Vnlrfca, Carrrna Kkatraa, t"raa BcHtortt, JwJ, Mart, Roe HarknUi ijitn HaaraatMHt. Awwtia feteac Oanaia Hunt, Knthe Knsenqulat, fat Brown, Marteaa Saotln, In 4obRaea. fcay Lawaaa, Boger Wart. BUSINESS STAFF m HetauMt, Harlrara hirk. Uaaraa atatea. Ana Hmm Am'i Batlacai Maaaaaia -The Self-Governed' Cooperation Needed In Student Affairs By LOUIS In May, 1952, in the wake of a large scale "panty raid" which cost its victims several hundred dollars in damaged or stolen prop erty, a student assembly expressed its condem nation OI SUCn ;"' uv.-a Dart) arte oings-on and University of ficials e x pressed their confidence the discipline tak leaders of "the such occur ences In the future. There were promises then of co-ordinated police protec tion of the campus, in case of future uprisings. And the students pledged their co-operation in pre ventive measures. In May, 1955, in the wake of a criminal riot wh:ch made the '52 affair look like child's play, stu dents again expressed their con demnation of such barbaric goings on. Uni?rslty officials promised future police protection of the campus, and expressed their con fidence the discipline taken against leaders of the raid would prevent any such occurrences in the future. The students have pledged their co-operatfon in preventive measure (although denying the administra tion proper co-operation irt dis ciplinary action). Sounds rather like a soap serial doesnt it? Different story. Differ ent leads. Same plot. As one of my favorite profs likes to say, history doesnt necessarily repeat itself but it frequently regurgitates. The regurgitation is usually more unpleasant than was the original stomach ache. Just what measures are needed to prevent future riots? The lack of effective co-operation from the student body to en sure proper disciplinary action against this year's rioters nar rows the field ef possible pre ventive action considerably. Perhaps the University will, this time, ensure future police pro tection ef the campus. But negative measures are not sufficient. Something positive is needed to eliminate "panty raids" from the active consideration of minds. An annual spring event a real "tomwallager" under official Uni- SCHOEN versity sanction conceivably could help. Establishment of the All Men's Advisory Board for "closer co operation among men's groups" may provide part of the. answer. At least it should unite men's or ganizations in efforts to avert fu ture riots. The Nebraskan editor suggested the riot was doe partly to "disre spect for each ether" by the ad ministration and students, growing out of "mutual Indifference" and "Ignorance of each other's needs, wants and rights" I have no ticed prbately with dismay, pre viously this year, that Chancel lor Hardin has not since his ar rival here spoken to an all-University assembly. I have noted pre viously in this column what I felt was a general misunderstanding by students ef University policy due to failure of the administra tion to clarify its position. What is the solution for this "disrespect," "mutual indifference" and "ignorance"? I would suggest establishment of a joint student-faculty-administration committee on University af faris, as a real sounding board for the needs, wants and rights of all three goups. It should have the broadest possible jurisdiction and influence. It should include the broadest possible cross-section of student interest. It should include students who are not and never have been engaged in stu dent activities, as well as leaders iu activities; students of average scholarship as well as honor stu dents; students paying their way through school entirely with their own earnings as well as those be ing financed entirely by parents and mostly by scholarships. Through regular discussions of problems affecting all phases of University life of the needs, wants and rights of students, faculty and administration I think such a com mittee could bring the interests of these three groups into closer proximity. By its suggestions, it could carefully direct the course of University affairs in a manner befitting an institution of higher learning. It well might eventually make the University appear more as a source of higher knowledge and wisdom and less as a manu facturer of playboys and point conscious activity people. gain under ike wnenhlp MiM.I,wqHn and (Personal Direction of (Bette (Bonn The Berte Bonn School of Modeling end Charm l: r i ttuita 607 Feaaral Seaarittoa BaUdtag, UaealB. Kearaaka four, tn Profwtiona! Ilodcllnc FaaWon, Ta.evttirm. IIoMob Plrtura and Photographic. Non-profearional Couraaa In MMmprmmtM and Charm. Srhools In principal Midwaatem CiUea. la Uaxleo City: Batta Bona da ldexieo, S A. at Paaao da la K forma, lot. Call 2-2311 for your appointment witfc Betto Bonn i .. f " ' aaa Direct from the Riviera The Italian -Style SPORT SHIRT by Eagle Emdaarrc at Mawee'i . 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Buy the KRO-BAT in your own weight and grip size. Just one set will tell you . . . this is your year for better tennis. Spalding SETS THE PACE IN SPORTS I V ' Author "Barmmot Bon wxtk Ckmek." tit.) THE GREAT CAP and GOWN CONTROVERSY The cap and frown season is upon us, and with it comes tha perennial question: which side of the cap should the tassel hang on? This is an argument that arises every year to roil the aca demic world, and it is, alas, no closer to solution today than it was in 1604 when Fred Tassel invented the troublesome orna "atnent. Fred Tassel, incidentally, never made a penny from his inven tion. The sad fact is he never took out a patent on it. This tragic oversight becomes understandable, however, when one considers that patents were not invented till 1851 by Fred Patent, himself a pitiable figure. A compulsive handwasber, he died in his four teenth year, leaving behind a wife and five spotless children. But I digress. We were discussing which side of the cap tha tassel should hang on. For many years the universally accepted practice was to hang the tassel over the front of the cap. This practice was abandoned in 1942 when the entire graduating class of Northwestern Uni versity, blinded by tassels hanging in their eyes, made a wrong turn during commencement exercises and ended up at the Great Lakes Training Center where, all unwitting, they were inducted into the Navy for five year hitches. There is one school of thought-large and growing daily larger which holds that the tassel should be worn on the same side you carry your Philip Morris cigarettes. Thus a quick glance will show you where your Philip Morris are and save much time, and fumbling. This makes a good deal of sense because when one wants a Philip Morris, one wants one with a minimum of delay. One does not relish being kept, even for a second, from the clean, delicate flavor of Philip Morris, so artfully blended, so subtly concocted to please the keen and alert taste buds of young smokers. One chafes at any obstacle, however small, that is put in the way of enjoying this most edifying of cigarettes, so pleasing to the perceptive palate. Here, in king size or regular, at prices that do no violence to the slimmest of budgets, is a firm white cylinder of balm and pure, abiding content. There is another group, small but vocal that insists the tassel should hang over the back of the cap. The tassel, they say, is a symbol like the bullfighter's pigtail, signifying honor and courage. They are wrong. Bullfighters wear pigtails for only one rea son: to keep the backs of their necks warm. Do you have any idea what a draft a bull makes when he rushes past you? A plenty big one, you may be sure. In fact, upper respiratory infectionsrcontracted in the wake of passing bulls, are the largest single cause of bullring fatalities. I have this interesting statistic from the Bullfighters Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, one of tha few insurance companies in Hartford, Connecticut, which writes insurance exclusively for bullfighters. Incidentally, Hartford, the insurance capital of America, is a most interesting city and well worth a visit if you are ever in New England, as north eastern Uniied States is, for some reason, called. Hartford can be reached by bus, train, plane, and the Humboldt Current Try to make your visit in spring, when the actuaries are in bloom, But I digress. We were talking about what side to wear tht tassel on. An ingenious solution to this troubling problem was proposed a few years ago by Fred Sigaf oos, perhaps better known as "The Quoit King of Delaware." An early forbear ef Mr. Sigafoos, Humboldt Sigaf oos (who later invented the current which bears his name) was granted a monopoly by King George III on all quoits manufactured in Delaware. Somehow the royal appointment was never rescinded and from that day to this, every quoit made in Delaware has been a Sigafoos Quoit Well, sir, Fred Sigafoos once suggested that an equitable settlement to the great tassel controversy wonM h n , the tassels so they stood upright and hung on no side of the can . ai an. mr. oigaioos was, 01 course, only seeking to broaden his market, because after graduation, what can you do with an upright tassel but hurl quoits at it? CMu stulaua. IMf Thm maker of PHILIP MORRIS uh bring you tkU column make no recommendation about nhat tide to hang the tatmrX on. But with ieiearettet they "y: Stay on the mentis, tatty, vintage tide -with fitltr IB asstrvc 7 niur MiAAij, of courte. L t