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.Volume 72, Number 163 Thursday, May 14, 1964 Statesville Editorial Rebutted Stye iatlg Slar if tl Entered ma 2nd class matter i the Pact Office la Chapel H33, N. C, pcrsa&ct te Act of March 8, 1870. Subscription rates: M) per $8 per year. 71 Years of Editorial Freedom PsUs2ied daSy except Mondays, examinations periods and vacations, tbroaghoat the d exilic year by the Publications J?oard of the University of North Carolina. Printed by the Chapel Hill Publishing Company, Inc., 501 West Franklin Street. Chapel Hill, N. C. Clii Psi A Winner And An Example (Editor's Note: Due to an error made at the printshop, a significant portion of the following editorial, written by Hugh Stevens, did not appear in the editorial column of Wednesday morn ing's DTH. Stevens wrote the editorial without the prior knowledge of his co editor, Fred Seely, who is a member of Chi Psi Fraternity. We repeat the en tire editorial here for the sake of clar ity.) Once again it is time to give credit where credit is certainly due this time to Chi Psi Fraternity, winner of the R. B. House trophy as the outstanding fraternity on this campus during 1963 64. Sometimes the pats on the back which we hand out so liberally are mere formalities, but this one is more than that. The R. B. House award is truly a significant honor for the fraternity that wins it. It is not based on the "cool ness" or the "sharpness" of a frater nity's members, nor on the wildness of the parties they have, nor on the value of the automobiles which they drive. Instead, it is given on the basis of ex cellence in several categories which are far more important scholarship, cam pus service by the members, house ap pearance, . intramurals, and IFC par ticipation. This year it has gone to a truly deserving group of men the .members of Chi Psi, or as it is perhaps better known, "The Lodge." I do not have to base my comment on Chi Psi on the reports handed out by IFC. Fred Seely, my co-editor, is a mem ber, and I have had ample opportunity to watch from rather close range as The Lodge made its climb to the top during the past year. I could point out the more obvious reasons behind the success of Chi Psi (first in scholarship, best pledge class, tops in intramurals, etc.), but those are the things which must be present every year to a certain extent in the winning house. They do not come by accident. Rather, they are the result of two things an especially talented group of men, and the desire to be more than just another "sharp" fraternity. Of the two factors, the latter is by far the most important. Call it what you will ispirit, desire, or something else it is the thing which makes or breaks a frater nity. Whatever.it is, the Chi Psi's have it, and their excellence in many fields is merely a manifestation of this intangible quality. By combining individual tal ents, hard work, and this cohesive spirit of true "fraternity," the members of The Lodge have made their house one of which they, and the entire UNC fra ternity system, can be justly proud. Be cause they have not been content to sit idly by and watch the campus move about them, but have instead made a positive effort to contribute to its prog ress, they have benefited both them selves and the campus. As a member of another fraternity, I wish to take this opportunity to extend best wishes to Chi Psi on behalf of the entire fraternity system. Chi Psi has contributed to the growth of each of its members, the status of the fraternity system, and the life of the University. To my fellow fraternity men I would humbly suggest that their example is an excellent one for all to follow in help ing to improve the fraternity life which is so important to us. The Council Calls 9 Em As It Sees 'Em Now that the Constitutional Council has declared the proposed student "poll" on the boycott to be "unconstitutional," we should pause for a moment to ask ourselves what it all means. The most obvious aspect of the situa tion, of course, is that there will be no opportunity this spring for the student body to express its opinion on the civil rights question an opportunity for which a maioritv of students have been f clamoring. Even though it is the most obvious and immediate consideration, however, it may well be that it is not the most important. The desirability of some type of stu dent vote on an issue of this magnitude is readily apparent, and, in this respect, the decision of the Council, which voids such a vote at this time, is regrettable However, the Constitutional Council's K W far more important than any single poll it reaches into the very heart of Student Government and the Student Constitution. We would point out one very impor tant fact to be kept in mind by all who, in the days and weeks ahead, go about analyzing this hectic and confused situa tion. It is this: the action of the Con stitutional Council cannot and should not be construed as an attempt by the members of that body to prevent a stu dent vote. The students who compose the Council (three from the Men's Coun cil and three from the Women's Coun cil, plus the Men's Council chairman) made their decision on the basis of the evidence presented to them. Probably some of the members of the Council wanted very much to see a campus-wide vote on the boycott issue dur ing e semester. Probably some of them didn't. But the near-unanimity of their decision (6-1 in favor of constitution ality) indicates that they simply did not feel that the Communications Com mittee could rightly assume the re sponsibility for the voting. They made their decision in good faith, knowing all the while that the students badly want an opportunity to vote, and that a decision favoring un constitutionality might well bring ad verse student comment. We do not agree with their decision, but they are jurists, not editors or politicians, and thus are bound by the principle of "calling 'em as they see 'em." In the presentations to the council on Tuesday night, several outstanding points were produced by both sides. We left the meeting with a distinct aware ness that the decision, however it turned out, would be made with the Constitu tion, not the poll, uppermost in mind. We also felt that such a decision would approve the poll. The first feeling re mains with us, and for this reason W3 caution our readers against any hasty misjudgment of the Council's actions. The system of checks and balances in stalled in our Student Government is derived from a basic premise of demo cratic government. In deciding that the "poll" was unconstitutional, the Coun cil availed itself of its right to void any action by the Executive or Legislative branches deemed to be detrimental to the student body. Again, we must point out that it was not the principle of a "poll" or "referendum" which was struck down it was the specific "poll" set for this Friday, which was consid ered by the Council to fall under the jurisdiction of the Elections Board. In reaching their conclusion on the matter, the body relied heavily on the wording of the Constitution and their interpretation of its content. It is our feeling, as well as the feeling of many members of Student Government, that the Council did not take into account a number of other, very relevant factors. But it was their decision, and they made it. And just like the legislators who did their best to get the issue to the stu dents, they performed their duty with YOU in mind. The result is that you will not vote on the boycott this spring. But you can rest assured that the Constitutional Council is ever ready to defend your Constitution against encroachments, as they felt they were doing in this case Do not allow your bias about Friday, poll to cause you to accuse them unjustly. ? ? All Is Not Hmnky Dory In I (TV By CURTIS GANS I find that I didn't learn very much from the editorial "Learn ing From A Death," which ap peared in Sunday's Daily Tar Heel. If the editors had stopped at the point where they pointed out quiet justly that people, in States ville and elsewherts made a rac ial incident out of a suicide in that town when they shouldn't have, their point would at least be well taken, if not limited and obvious. However, they chose to expand. They chose to say that somehow Statesville has a united phalanx of unarmed Negroes acid whites making steady pro gress down the road to human equality and dignity. They intimated that somehow an atmosphere of mutual re spect exists in Chapel Hill and that a Negro can walk with "his head up" as he walks through town. They attempted to say that the State was mak ing great strides without pro test movements and that if the "extremist" would just go home everything would be solved, be cause our leadership is enlight ened enough to see the future. I don't really see it that way. I don't have any claim to om niscience, but it appears to me that even in this great and pro gressive state of ours, which is indeed more progressive than -most Southern states, only two per cent of the Negro popula tion attends integrated schools, more than 90 per cent of the engineering graduates of Negro institutions must seek work out of this state, less than one eighth of the public establish ments are desegregated, there is not one single Negro in high executive offices, only a bare handful receive advanced de grees from institutions of higher learning, and all by and large are doomed to an annual income of $2,000 less than the white man, when both Negro and white are earning on an average slightly less than subsistence. I don't think we can be too happy about an educatinal sys tem that keeps the Negro two years behind the white and the realities of police brutalities and the double standard of justice which prevail in all too many of the communities of the State. I read with alarm that Negroes are beig denied their Constitu tional right to vote in Enfield and that some wrongly have decided to take guns in the face of hostilities in Monroe. It is good to hear that the Statesville Chamber of Com merce, City Council and Mer chants Association are beginning to do something, but it is ab surd to assume that because the NAACP is backing the proposal that there is united support. The NAACP is by and large the most conservative of the Negro or ganizations. It represents ki the main the last generation and the legal arm of the protest move ment. It has been drawn willy cilly and because of lack of co operation into the movement, and, if indeed it is participating in the Statesville effort, it is on an "if" basis only. Nationally and locally it does not represent the 100 per cent cooperation that was represented by the editor ial. There has been a lot done in Chapel Hill and elsewhere, but a lot still remains to be done. We are a far cry from the day when the Negro can hold his head up here, for if nothing else he must stoop a little to avoid the falling timbers from the door jamb of the home he must live in. I don't think a Negro de velops much self-respect from seeing an economic future that puts custodial duties at the apex of his employment dreams, and I don't think he will long tolerate the condescending attitude of the white man wrho says "look how much progress we've made." I don't think the white man can hold his head high either in a community in which the col lective guilt of segregation still exists, nor can it sit still while its government which voted down public . accommodations or dinances guides the course to equality as it sees fit. I don't know what it's like to be a Negro. I am not one. But if I were viewing it from a Neg ro's porch, I think I would see that nothing was done until the anti-lynching league brought to the public the plight of the Neg ro, until the NAACP's legal staff brought to the Supreme Court the issue of school segregation, and the sit-in movement brought to national and world attention ft- T ''It vt V X V i iff Iff Trjr 'i$gf - . lt""'5$i J&r yy&':- mill- it-. - ;.;.;.:-;.;.v.- v -s----W'-Ss" . .'.....w.-.-r.'.-.-.yssr.z. ::::'::::::-::::r :-:'::: :-::::::Vr:::::":;x-x':::"::::: :r:::::::: :x;:-:::-:::::vXy: -Vst the plight of the Negro in ac commodations, travel, housing and employment. If I were a Negro, I think I would see that some progress has been made, but I don't think I'd offer any thanks for that pro gress or for the reluctant white benefactors who made it pos sible, because it came too late and is still too little. I think, if I were a Negro, I'd be a little tired of efforts of the white community to be nice and expiate their own guilt, and I would demand, as the Negro is currently demanding, full right of participation in any and all decision-making that affects his or somebody else's future in the public weal. This state is fortunate that Gov. Terry Sanford has initiat ed several programs, all inade quate, but all a step in the right direction. The Good Neighbor Council is doing the first spadework to ward equal hiring practices, the Governor's poverty program will seek to build communities where Negroes can indeed live and work side by side, and the North Carolina Intercollegiate Council on Human Relations has begun work on a film series that will depict the Negroe's plight in this state. None of these programs are enough, nor are they in the main adequate. The film series suf fers from lack of understanding of the whites involved and lack of technical skill in the Negroes' behalf. It also suffers from lack of a sufficient monetary com mitment to do the job right to take cameras into the fields to depict situations as they really are. More importantly, however, all of these programs are a direct outgrowth of the non-violent rev olution that started Feb. I, I960, and will not stop. They are part of a long awaited effort in this state, but they are more impor tantly the result of substantive political pressures that Gov. Sanford had to respond creative ly to or cast his lot with the other Southern governors. And yet, this is but a begin ning. These are programs com ing still from the white elite. They still have in only two cases involved the Negro in a mean ingful way in the planning pro cess and always with the know ledge that he really has not yet the power to change an adverse decision. If I were a Negro, I believe I would get a little tired of being patted on the head, even by sympathetic whites. It is true in Chapel Hill also. The Committee for Concerned Citiizens is largely white liberal, and while creative, has failed miserably to involve the Negro in the decision-making procr Thp Freedom Commit tv r.v;- on its island and the Xe-ro ;, community on another of own. I don't really kno.v if i ,. lieve in brotherhood. The re living institutionalized exa:r.;,:" of it the fraternities an : t , orders, the churches ar.-i schools have all been fail i; .-(. Perhaps it is an irr,;. eoneeDt of the egocentric i, tion of man's existence. Thc ;v crift is nnf and htimnn r: is not. Neither of these cone. ; - . -. r. . 1 1 i : : l implies iuu um ucipunnn if. ' activities, and, in the c;,., of the South's crisis, m.iivn tion, direct or otherwise, build the New South. It was not too many years 2;- 1 i T . . . 1 1 '. ' i wneu iiebier ouwies uuea 0: revolution of rising expecta tions in underdeveloped coun tries of this world. This 'revolu tion is occurring in the Unite! States today. At the World ; Fair two weeks ago, those in volved in the civil rights move ment waited with baited breath to see whether the rank and file would outrun its .leadership and whether there would be a na tionalist movement of violence soon. I have heard it said by sfsr.e of the most able people in this state that it can't happen here, that the blood that will surely flow in the North will not ilv in the South ever. They're wrong. If they can read they must know that it can happen here so long as we have a post office with a Statue of Liberty model in the center and two water fountains, one engraved white and the other engraved Negro, flanking it in a major city in our state. The movement that has start ed will not stop. We ere cn the threshold of the last chance to act united to create a demo cratic community. If we can't ' do it because we think it 1 i;;.it and just, then perhaps we can do it because we fear the c n sequences of inaction. We begin by talking a different language, but the concepts are not new or different or unreal. They just take work to, make them into a reality. For 73-odd years, Jhe Daily Tar Heel has had the needed freedom to constructively crit icize, to exert leadership and to educate a large segment of the State's population and future leadership. It has also had the freedom te misjudge and to display t h e editor's ignorance. It is a pity that when leader ship is so much needed, it has chosen now to follow the latter course. LETTERS j 'P if" 1 10 EDITORS' Cultural Events Relegated To Back Seat Oni Calendar By PETER RANGE One thing which has irritated me for a Jong time is the con sistent method in which all con certs, speeches and other extra curricular events of cultural in terest and real value at UNC are scheduled for week nights instead of weekends. Last week saw the presentation of one of the richest musical weeks this University has ever known: the UNC Symphony, the UNC Chamber Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony gave outstanding performances on three consecutive nights. Which nights? Tuesday, Wednes day and Thursday, of course! Squeezed right in when students have the most work and the least free time! Even the student-run Carolina Symposium runs Sunday through Thursday, apparently afraid to tread on sacred ground by using Friday. The fundamental reasoning be hind this madness, of course, is that students would not come to these events on weekends, that weekends are a sacred time for raising hell. The notion that a person might even go to a con cert on a Saturday evening and then proceed to a party with three hours left seems to have entered no one's mind. In the first place, I find this a very unfortunate basis for not using weekends for cultural events and speakers. This is to say, then, that the powers that be consider the weekend parties more important than the events in question? If this is not the case, then why submit to the popular trend to use weekends for less serious causes than poetry reading and chamber mu sic? Why not simply defy this tradition and put the worthwhile affairs on the weekends, in the ultimate hope of changing the trends? Not doing this is certain ly an underrating of the fine schedule cf events we enjoy (if we find time during the week) in Chapel Hill It is time first things came first. I can certainly conceive of even more people attending the cultural affairs on the week ends than during the week. I, for one, having lost all interest in the usual forms of hell-raising, am at a loss for entertainment on a free weekend, other than the Rialto. I would like nothing more than to have a play, a con cert, a reading, or a speech to attend on Friday and Saturday nights. In the second place, it can be argued that the very students who would not come to cultural events on the weekends are the same ones who do not come any way. Those who have enough in terest to make crucial time available for this during the week would certainly be willing and eager to do the same on the weekend. Hence, I challenge the Music Department to institute a "Sat urday Evening Series," the Ca rolina Forum to bring speakers on Friday nights, the Symposium to run over the weekend, and the ad hoc Playmakers produc tions like Fantasticks to aim at Friday-Saturday schedules. It is time these events were made more easily accessible to the serious student who needs week nights for studying! Girls Negligent On Social Duties Editors The Daily Tar Heel: It was Freshman Weekend. I was talking with three' male stu dents, one from California, one from Pennsylvania and one from New Jersey, Saturday night at the combo party in front of Gra ham Memorial. They all said that the chief drawback to UNC was the lack of girls. As I look ed at the large group of boys, without dates, standing around watching the couples dance, I re peated what I have said many times, that there is little in these parties for boys without a part ner to dance with. One student said that the dormitory girls were not interested and did not cooperate to make these parties the success they should be. He said when Cobb Dormitory gave a combo party the girls hid in the dormitory and refused to come out. It is understandable that, with so many more boys than girls here, the girls would get inde pendent, but that is no excuse for bad manners. They should think of somebody besides them selves. You go to a party to give pleasure and not just think of what you will get out of it. The dormitory girls should plan to go to these parties as a group, and dance with anybody and every body at the party. Even then there probably would be a short age of girls, therefore arrange ments should be made with UNC G to bring busloads of girls to the party, mix them up with the boys, and, after the dance is over, return to their campus. This would eliminate the cost of lodging and eating both for the girls and boys. Unless the planning commit tees solve this problem, much of their efforts and the expense of putting on these parties, will be wasted. Otelia Connor Lake Defended As Most Kational Editors, The Daily Tar Heel: First of all, I wish to congratu late you in general on the ex cellent DTH and in particular on your editorial policy. There is a distinct difference between your present policy and that of the previous editorship and, need less to say, a considerable im provement. However, I was disappointed in the editorial of May 8 which se verely criticized Dr. I. Beverly Lake and paralelled North Caro lina under his governorship to Mississippi, Alabama or Louisi ana. Dr. Lake is an advocate of states rights, therefore I can see why the DTH does not agree with him on many issues, but this editorial seems to have gone too far. ; Dr. Lake did indeed begin at a disadvantage. He has indeed gained ground at a remarkable rate, and, if this pace continues, he may well be elected governor of North Carolina. He is not irrational as you strongly imply (after all. he was graduated from Harvard Law School and was a law professor at Wake Forest for 18 years); he has the best (if not the only rational) platform of any of the Democratic candidates for governor. If each person in this stale would take time to listen to what Dr. Lake has to sav. he win realize; this for himself. His momentum gjins dailv and the primary is still three weeks away. As you said in your edi torial, "the possibility is not as far off as it once seemed." Dwight Thomas Jr. 344 Ehringhaus Hall
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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May 14, 1964, edition 1
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