Page 2
The Nebrask.an
Wednesday, March 22, 1961
Just A Thought
By Dave Calhoun
The long-awaited Spring Vacation is about to begin.
At last the students and the faculty can take a break from
day-by-day routine of school, meetings and hour exams.
The campus as a whole is tired. Tired of tests, tired
of meetings and tired of trying to raise their voice above
the snoring masses. Perhaps we can all sleep during
vacation.
Without attempting to over-burden your already over
burdened schedule, I would like you to thing about sev
eral things sometime during the vacation. Perhaps you
can think about it during the ride home,
' perhaps while you are asleep.
First, the Student Council, which may
not have set any records for getting
things done this year, is undertaking one
or two mammoth projects. Its Council
representation reorganization is just one
of these projects.
Two weeks ago a Council member re
ceived the vote of the Council to hold sev
eral open meetings to sound out various
methods of council representation. Last
week he reported that at the first meet
ing there were six or seven people present. The following
week his committee held an open meeting with the ONE
interested person. Word has it that the meeting after
vacation will be held in the first floor janitor's closet,
so as to accommodate the ancipiated crowd.
It would just go to follow that a general apathy which
seems to have everybody by the neck will eventually
wear off on the few interested Council members we now
have.
Why not for a change, get intersted in something
anything. When a group of people get so tired and lazy,
opposing forces will take advantage. Opposing forces may
be different to different people. They may be the Admin
istration, the subs or the temperance league.
Psychologists tell us that the uninterested and the do
nothings are the ones who eventually get into trouble.
Perhaps this is true.
The problem of student interest, not spirit, has not
been confined to just Student Council. Most of the organ
izations on campus are plagued with this problem.
Look at the attendance at the so-called "minor" sport
ing contests. This winter all three of the "minor" sport
teams showed noticeable improvement. The gymnastics
team was undefeated in dual and triangular competition.
Ask any gymnast how many fans watched and supported
the team
Campus organizations have alsb had to combat this
extra burden. Early in the year someone somewhere got
the Lefs-reorganize-our-campus-organization bug. Now
everybody's doing it.
Maybe the reorganization bug provided the spark to
kindle the flame of interest.
Whether it did or not, is not important. The important
thing is we need something to interest the entire campus,
and it had better be soon. Spring is coming. For some it
is already here. Here's hoping that someone can find
something of general campus interest before the annual
suds run begins or before the silk streamers start hang
ing out of the girls dorm.
Groups and activities with which you are connected
are continually trying to interest you in something. Why
not take advantage of it?
The Catacombs
Now it's my turn. Since
the other columnists have
already expressed them
selves concerning the new
Beef Prodigies (or is it
progeny?) under the astute
direction of the hooded
hondos, I take my typewrit
er at fingers and will dash
off a few salvos at this
most honorable of plans.
The intimation was heard
the other day that this
would be a great place to
get recommendations for
future job placements.
"The fact is that none of
those guys will ever stay
here ... so why shouldn t
they get some good rec
ommendations while they
still have a chance. Be
cause Mr. Downtown Suc
cess is the president of the
regional Crabgrass Obliter
ation Committee, he should
be able to put in a good
word for Gregory Green
grass with the Internation
al Weed Extermination So
ciety." Good idea, kids. Let's for
get all the good the . pro
gram could bring and get
the downtown Pharisees
while there is still time:
Whoopee open season on
Lincoln businessmen start
ed two weeks ago and the
sky's the limit. Maybe some
organization would like to
sponsor a contest to see who
could get the most recom
mendations in one week.
Then we could have special
really turn this into a big
deal.
Come on female of the
species, jump into this
melee: Since most of you
are probably in Teacher's
and there are quite a few
teachers here in town you
could start a real plan right
here and now it might
even rival the United Na
tions. Who will be the first
to sign up applications
are going to the lowest bid
ders. Come one, come all!!
Now that the Tide's come
in and I am rhapsudsizing
on my little soap box, an
other pet peeve might as
well be mentioned. What's
this hooperoo about the or
ganization of the independ
ents? All right you guys in
Selleck, get your big I's and
little i's ready, it is time to
start another Civil War.
"This was the Battle of Get
tysburg . . ."
SEVENTY-ONE TEARS OLD
14th & R
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Personally responsible fat What they aay. or do, or cause to be printed,
ebruary I, lJ4.
DIIOitlAX STAFF
Editor
Managing Editor
News Editor
Nnorts Editor . . .
Ag News Editor .
V
Calhoun
According to Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, a rep
utable source I believe,
among other things an in
dependent is described as
"Not subject to bias or in
fluence; hence, self-reiiant,
self-confident, self-respecting,
or the like, not subserv
ient." If this is a descrip
tion of the campus inde
pendent, they all must be
hiding in the Parthenon.
Show me one independent
on this campus who is not
subject to bias, and follow
ing right behind him will
be fifty that are. As for the
rest, well . . .
The one thing that most
independents gripe the
loudest and longest about is
the IFC sponsored slate fcr
the Student Council (prob
ably because they are just
plain jealous.) So what do
they do to retaliate? put
out a slate of their own for
everything that comet
along and plaster it all
over, and plaster all over
it, VOTE INDEPENDENT,
VoTe InDePeNdEnt, ad in
finitum. Somewhere along the line
the old policy of voting for
the best candidate has been
lost. But since that is not
all that has been lost, the
loss is not too great.
Whatever happened to
those discerning ballot bun
glers who voted for the best
person, whether he was a
Greek, independent, or a
middle-of-the road Popu
list . . . they probabaly
went out with the three
date rule obviously with
the aid of columns.
The pressure of house and
dorm prestige have been
been the victors. So what if
someone gets elected and
never offers anything to an
organization. The glory of
saying "Well our house has
umpteen members on t h e
Council of the Minds, the
Girl Guides, Architect's Ad
visory, or the International
Cooke League Board" in the
rush booklet looks much
nicer than saying that there
is one person in the aggre
gate who thinks for himself.
Wait until the dorms start
putting out rush books, then
we'll see the plans for in
dependent organization
reach the limit.
Dave Calhoun
Oretchen Shcllberg
Norm Beatty
.....Hal flrown
Jim Forrest
t
j i i J AY &Aetfm&--aE& -
KEEP yoop. IWDS OFF THAT iMNottNT ftrtooUAAW'
After-Growth of McQarthyism
Is Spreading to Main Street
Eric Sevareid
The jet plane has made
travel sudden transition, a
blow to the brain. One
week I was in the cramped,
grey towns of England,
w n e r e
t h ousande
of the edu
cated re
fuse to un
d e r s tand
that the ex
t e r n a.l
C o m m u
i s t threat
is real; the
next week
I was in the wide, bright
towns of the American Mid
of the uneducated refuse to
understand that the internal
Communist threat is really
dead.
On a street in Kansas my
host stopped his car to point
to a new office building.
"He owns that, and a lot
else beside," the host ex
plained. "He's got money
and influence. He couldn't
tell a Communist from Rob
ert A. Taft, but he's trying
to get his crackpots - onto
the school board and a lot
of us are worried."
"He" is the local boss of
the John Birch Society, one
manifestation of the rank,
posthumous after-growth of
McCarthyism, now spread
ing its weeds among the
grass roots in Main Street
country.
"They organize in t a s k
forces," my host went on.
"They call school teachers
and local college professors
in the middle of the night
and denounce them as
Communists They recruit
kids as spies to take down
classroom remarks of their
teachers. They plant people
in public lectures to ask
loaded questions. They try
to get their idiotic films and
maps used in. the high
schools. Maybe it's hard
these days to get a man
smeared in Washington or
even in Hollywood, but in
a small city like this where
people live awfully close to
gether, it can still be done."
The maps show every
country In the world in the
color red, except a few s jch
as Spain, Portugal and the
Dominican Republic. All
the neutralist nations, all
those like Britain or Sweden
with any degree of public
ownership are Red.
These are the people who
think of Chief Justice Earl
Warren as a Communist, of
social security, income
taxes and minimum wage
law as planned stages to
Communism.
This phenomen is not that
most frightening of all
things, ignorance empow
ered, as was McCarthyism;
it can hardly make a dent
in the collective sanity of
any large and sophisticated
community. But it is begin
ning to strain the nerves of
intellectual leaders in t h e
middle cities that posses
the social evils of the great
cities and none of the sim
ple virtues of the small
town. The soil was always
prepared for Main Street
McCarthyism, for these are
W 1
Sevareid
the centers where "the y"
means the government in
Washington alien, far
away, always threatening
the nest-eggs long
"scrimped and saved" for.
The phenomenon is n o t
new; indeed, it pre-dates
Joseph McCarthy by many
years in its essential spirit.
My own initiation into this
weird world came in t h e
mid-thirties when, for the
purpose of a newspaper ex
pose in a Midwestern city,
I spent weeks in prim par
lor meetings of the "Silver
Shirts," listening to pinch
faced retired clerks, ac
countants, corner mer
chants explaining how the
Communists were about to
seize the country. The
memory is' vivid of one el
derly host leading me, with
mysterious looks, down to
his cellar to show me the
food hoard he had accumu
lated against the coming
siege. He even knew the
precise date the next Oc
tober 15 for the nation
wide Bolshevist uprising.
Education has failed such
people, or they have failed
education. America is pre
eminently the 1 a n d of
change and any kind of
change bewilders and up
sets them and they must
seek simple answers. They
cannot tell the difference
between a spy for the So
viets the only real in
ternal danger, which police
specialists must deal with
and an old-fashioned social
ist or a garden vareity
pragmatic liberal. They
cannot understand that
their own leaders are not
LITTLE MAN
PRESIDENT
HIMSELF.'..
mm
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conservatives but anti-Constitutional
radicals.
There is, it seems to me,
a certain inverted kinship
between these uneducated
Americans and the often
highly educated neutralists
and unilateral disarmers of
Europe. Neither group com
prehends the damaging con
fusion it sows. The first
does not know that the So
viets are delighted with any
movement that creates dis
trust and disunity among
Americans and transfers
our attention from the real
world menace to a fictitious
domestic menace. The sec
ond does not know that the
Soviets are delighted with
any movement that propa
gates the misleading notion
that the Russian quarrel is
with the United States
alone, the wish-belief that
the world is at peace, a
peace that would be univer
sally serene if only the So
viets and the Yanks
equally dangerous would
cease irritating it and reach
compromise on specific is
sues. The European neutralists
who see a potential settle
ment under every cold war
issue are doing far more
damage than the American
Know-Nothings who see a
Communist under every
bed. The American Union
is not going to drift apart,
but the Western alliance
can drift apart. The cold
war can be lost on the
world scene; it can hardly
be lost on the Main Streets
of Kansas.
ON CAMPUS
gas
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...THE PAWJLTt-
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-Hit SECRETARY...
OPEN MON.-THUKS. NITES
Nebraskan Letterip
The Daily" Nebraska will pabllsh only those letters which are slcni '.
ThevTma, be submitted with a pen name or Initials. However. Ir'.t r
-JlfhT HnEd aader Pes T aami or Initials only at the editor',. d.
, JZu exceed S0 words. When letter, eercd fi.
limit the Nebraskaa reserves the
writers views.
Concerts, Recitals
Don't Make Culture
To the editor,
I have read your column
"Conscience of a Liberal"
by Steve Gage, in The Daily
Nebraskan of March 21,
1961, giving impressions of
Christy Froschheuser and
George Brock over the ab
sence of interest in both
American and foreign cul
tures on campus. While I
agree with some of the ob
servations made by them, i
do not subscribe to the view
that a person who does not
visit the art galleries is un-
' cultured or if he does not
frequent to concerts or re
citals that he lacks cultur
al enlightenment. Culture is
exhibited in inter-personal
relations.
I might add that there
are some forty five cultures
represented on campus, in
cluding that of the United
States. I personally believe
' that Americans have a rich
culture, nay a "hybrid
giant," that holds a chal
lenge not only to Americans
but also to foreign nation
als. ,
Besides a handful of peo
ple who have been exposed
to foreign elements, interest
in people around the world,
their way of living and
thinking, their dresses, by
and large, is shockingly ab
s e n t. University students
are supposedly the elite of
this town and are thus ex
pected to give lead to eth
ers. We are living in a fast
moving -world. The three
continents of Asia, Africa,
and Latin America, where
most of the human race
lives today, and not the
BOOM!
Today, foregoing levity, let us turn our keen young minds to the
No. 1 problem facing American colleges today: the population
explosion. Only last week four people exploded in Cleveland,
Ohioone of them while carrying a plate of soup. In case you're
thinking such a thing couldn't happen anywhere but in Cleve
land, let me tell you there were also two other cases last week
a 45 year old man in Provo, Utah, and a 19 year old girl in
Bangor, Maine and in addition there was a near-miss in
Klamath Falls, Oregon -an eight year old boy who was saved
only by the quick thinking of his cat Walter who pushed tha
phone off the hook with his muzzle and dialled the department
of weights and measures. (It would perhaps have made mow
sense for Walter to dial the fire department, but one can hardly
expect a cat to summon a fire engine which is followed by
- Dalmatian, can one?)
I bring up the population explosion not to alarm you, for I
feel certain that science will ultimately solve the problem. After
all, haa not science in recent years brought us such marvels as
the transistor, the computer, the bevatron, and the Marlboro
filter? Oh, what a saga of science was the discovery of the
Marlboro filter I Oh, what a heart-rending epic of endless trial
and error, of dedication and perseverance ! And, in the end, what
a triumph it was when the Marlboro scientists after years of
testing and discarding one filter material after another-iron,
nickel, lead, tin, antimony, sponge cake-finally emerged, tired
but happy, from their laboratory, carrying in their hands tha
perfect filter cigarette! What rejoicing there was that day I
Indeed, what rejoicing there still is whenever we light a Marlboro
and settle back and enjoy that full-flavored smoke which cornea
to us in soft pack or flip-top box at tobacco counters in all
fifty states and Cleveland!
Yes, science will ultimately solve the problems rising out of. the
population explosion, but in the meantime the problems hang
heavy over America's colleges. This year will bring history'a
greatest rush of high school graduates. Where will we find class
rooms and teachers for this gigantic new influx?
Well sir, some say the answer is to adopt the trimester system.
This system, now m use at many colleges, eliminates summer
vacations, has three semesters per annum, instead of two, and
compresses a four year course into three years.
This is good, but is it good enough? Even under the trimester
system the student has occasional days off. Moreover his nightt
are utterly wasted in sleeping. Is this the kind of all-out attack
that is indicated?
I say no. I say desperate problems call for desperate reme
dies. I say that partial measures will not solve this crisis. I say
we must do no less than go to school every single day of the
year. But that is not all. I say we must go to school U houn
of every day!
The benefits of such a program are, of course, obvious. First
of all, the classroom shortage will immediately disappear be
cause all the dormitories can be converted into classrooms.
Second, the teacher shortage will immediately disappear because
all the night watchmen can be put to work teaching calculus
and Middle English poetry. And finally, overcrowding will
immediately disappear because everyone will quit school.
Any further questions?
r, one further quettion: Have you tried Marlboro' newet
ilZFr',' uUmdt king-elze Philip Morn,
tMudkL meant come aboard. You'll be
right to
condense them, retalnlni I, r
United States and the Sik'
viet Union, are likely to !?
cide the future of hur.i.vi
cide the future of human
ity. The problems of Con:-;),
South Africa, Algeria, anil
Cuba show some trends in
this direction. It is high
time we consider ourselves
a part of this whole world
rather than continue to be
rigid provinclallsts or na
tionalists.1" It is only if we
work toward mutual undei
standing between people of
the world that we shall find
everlasting peace and pros
perity for mankinds.
There are about two hun
dred and fifty foreign stu
dents on this campus. As a
first step in this direction,
I suggest each American
student meet at least one
foreign student that he or
she does not already know.
Have a coffee with him or
her and thus break the ice.
I am sure you will not be a
loser in the game. So, be
gin it today!
Yours Truly
Jagjit Singh
Student Questions
Library's Purpose
To the editor,
What is the purpose of the
library? Is it primarily a
source of employment for
librarians or is' it operated
for the benefit of students?
If a student is fortunate
enough to find the library
open, he may go inside.
Once he has gained en
trance he is confronted with
rules, regulations and pro
cedures which are designed
to make the use of any ma
terial impossible.
Doug Bereuter
with
(Author of "I Was a Teen-agt Dwarf, "The Many
Lout of Dobie Gillia", etc.)
IMt Mas aaa