THE DAILY TAR HEEL
Saturday, February 24, 1963
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76 Years of Editorial Freedom
t
BH1 Anilong, EdUcr
Don Walton, Business Manager
BTEPs Perverse Prides '
Constructive Negativism
For 75 years now the editorial
We of this newspaper has taken a
perhaps slightly perverse pride in
its rabble-rousing.
It is a tradition that has endured
mainly because .there has never
been a time, during the entire span
of years and editors, that this
University has been run exactly
the way The Daily Tar Heel
wanted it to be.
Whether that has been fortunate
for the University is a rather moot
question, because the editorial we
of this newspaper would never
even in another 75 years admit
it.
Indeed, it would far sooner echo
Rolfe Neill's 1953 comment that
''Something is rotten in South
Building."
After all that's what The Daily
Tar Heel is for, in a way: to tell
this University what's wrong with
it.
Admittedly but just barely
there probably are one or two
things right with the
Administration, Student Govern--ment,
and the world in general.
Seldom, however, lias The Daily
Tar Heel said so.
- .
Why? a y.
It's what has evolved, over the
years, as a policy we and past
we's like to think of as being
"constructive negativism." t -
This philosophy, if you want to
give it so lofty a classification, is
based on the firm belief of Daily
Tar Heel editors that there's just so
much around here to raise hell
about and so little time to raise
it that you've got to start early,
hit hard, and keep punching until
your year is up.
Further, if something is already
Go Fly
There are not many things quite
as refreshing as a good old-fashioned
kite fly
Not the sturdy, plastic kind of
thing either the paper type. The
good ole' break-in-the-middle, tear-on-a-tree
paper type.
And that's what Polk Place was
all about Friday afternoon.
.Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority
pledges made repeated runs from
the back steps of South Building
with their kites, and one kite even
managed to get launched from a
second floor window.
So scorn all you Scrooges, and
laugh all you pseudo - sophisti -cates.
South Building certainly owes
something to Student Legislature
for approving the new policy on
drug offenses. "
Is 30 pieces of silver still the
going price? ,
Pamela Hawkins, Associate Editor
Wayne Hurder, Managing Editor
Rebel Good, News Editor ,
y- Kermit Buckner, Advertising 'Manager
being done right, there's no need to
change it as there is with so
many other things.
The rabble-rousers, by the way,
have not always been on the
radical fringe as the stereotype
has often portrayed them. Most, in
fact, have gone on to build rather
solid careers after graduation.
For example, there was the
youngster back in 1931 who lam
basted the General Assembly for
not wanting to spend enough money
on this University.
". . ,. Where are the men who
will fight against the will of the
majority?," he wrote. "Where are
the loyal North Caroliniaiis who
will let nothing stand in the way of
progress? Where are our leaders?"
That "radical" was J. Carlyle
Sittersori. ' ;
Today, J.Carlyle Sitterson is
Chancellor of this University and
can't say; such things nearly as
loudly, as he did then even
though the North Carolina General
Assembly is still desperately in
need of leaders who will recognize
that UNC-CH needs a lot- more
money than it's getting from the
; state. '
The -present. we;-cf this, editorial
page; however; still can say such
things and bloody well intends
on doing so quite loudly, until such
time that our gargets and those of
our predecessors have withered
and ceased to afflict this University-
' -;; - K:r .k
As 1961 editor Wayne King
recently advised the present we:
"The only tilings you'll be sorry
about are the things you don't
say." , : . .
We hope to be sorry for as little
as possible.
A Kite
But maybe if there is just a little
room left for a bit of Polyanna or
Doolittle in today's world, every
thing might be a lot better off.
So smile, and forget for just a
second if such a word as forget
can be real anymore the Viet
nam War, the Arab-Israeli conflict,
the peace marches, the Black,
demonstrations, and the whole
blasted raunched up world.
Think for just a minute about
the disappointment after a kite
eating tree gives an ignominious
end to a kite. Think of the frustra
tion when a kite dives to the ground
after it has started to sail.
In short, go fly a kite. '
To The Editor:
In their over-anxious campaign to
purge campus organizations of all their
Bis the editors of the Daily Tar Heel
would do well to check the facts and
philosophies before launching the various
attacks.
The editorial in Wednesday's paper
about the female trustees visiting
Carolina with the analogy between dorm
life and a prison is as misleading a piece
of journalism as the Tar Heel has at
tempted'in. quite awhile.
In the first place, the; editor, or
whoever wrote the article, says in ac
tuality that "girls don't have a lot to say
about how their lives are run here.
As far as the trustees' visit is con
cerned, this is entirely inaccurate, as the
schedule of events was laid out by two
women students working with , campus
groups and administrative assistants.
Also, the trustees will meet 'with
members of the Women's Residence
Council, sorority house presidents and
Panhellenic . representatives, Women's
Honor Council members, and the
Valkyries, not to mention the individual
girls in the dorms.
It hardly sounds- like a , minority
representation of the female population
East KiffL
JOHN GREENE ACKER
Special To Th Dotty Tar Bed
John Greenbacker, formerly Associate ,
Editor of The Daily Tar Heel and presi
dent of Di-Phi, was one of the student
litigants in the-Speaker Ban suit. Here
are hiss reflections on the ban.
; With us, a
School like the singing tree of which
the leaves were mouths singing in con-
. cert is both a tree of knowledge
and of liberty seen in the unanimity of
college
mottoes, Lux et Veritas, ' ,
Christo et ecclesiae, Sapient
have not knowledge, just opinions, that
we are undergraduates,
not students; we know we have been told
with smiles by expatriates
of whom we had asked "When will your
experiment be finished? "Science is
never finished."
Poets truly may not be constrained by
specific things such as time and place, '
and perhaps Miss Marianne Moore will
understand the application of these lines
to our -little here and now. This day, the
19th of February, I confess I was washed
by a quiet tide of joy, infused with self
satisfaction, tempered by sadness. For,
in what seemed to be a generous af
terthought, the federal courts cut the
albatross Speaker Ban from the
University's neck.
How strange it seems now, two years
later, the gentle confusion of memories.
Two hundred miles away, stored in an old
box in my parent's attic, the incredible
montage of McNeill Smith's brilliant pen
is drawn out on yellowing paper. It
pulsates secretly in darkness.
And really, it is difficult to select the
right emotion for the event. Does one
laugh or cry? Almost three years ! ago,
when I mentioned the possbibility of
litigation to my father, he outlined the
probable procedure we would take to gain
an injunction. I accepted with patience
(the patience of disbelief) bis observa- '
tion, "Don't expect any quick action.
These things take years." We were im
petuous, for isn't that what youth is? And
all citizens in America could expect a
speedy trial, a quick redress of
grievance. And, after all,' wasn't this an
act of love; it couldn't be smeared by
any damned sluttish time.
And where are they now, that started
this thing? Dickson, who gets up in the
morning and goes to work at a Charlotte
television station, tries to remember all
the names, and finally says only
mi nomnnc
As for the dorms closing eariv tt,
writer of the article should have checked
the minutes of Tuesday's WRC meeting
where he would have found that the coun
cil voted to keep regular closing hours for
Granville, Alderman and the sororities
all of whicn nave no trustee
there.
staying
The other dorms are closing early as a
'."consideration to the trustees, and to the
girls, for a required house meeting where
" entertainment will be provided by the
dorm or thetrustee. (After a long day of
' meetings in Raleigh,-a banquetat Chase
and gatherings with the women on cam
pus, it hardly seems fair to ask a trustee
to wait until closing hours for the girls' ,
convenience.)
And as far as excuses go if the
author had checked the .Residence
Manual for the dorms, he would have,
found that a dorm president may excuse
a girl from a house meeting because of
two quizzes, illness or any other
legitimate excuse.
But, obviously he didn't check those
facts or any others.
Lesley Wharton
President, Granville East
'Say, How' d This Dump Ever Last 75
McSween and Waller (a bit older, both of
them) still pound the pavement in Chapel
Hill. Powell burns 'midnight oil , in
Princeton, Matthews in Washington; and
; both contemplate an impending draft of
hot Asian air. Patterson caresses the
spines of books in some legal sanctum
sanctorum. Van Loon unrolb his frayed
velvet tongue in London. Nicholson flies
somewhere with the Air Force, and tells
disbelieving' comrades-in-arms' what a
wheeler-dealer he was in college.
McCrary settles down in Buenes Aires,
lets his hair grow long, switches to the
sly tinted glasses of truncated South
American dictators. Medford, just a bit,
homesick for the mountains, unsettles the
staid Prussian dead by howling down and
dwarfing the pavements of
Schopenhauerweg, Mainz; peering
thrpugh the cold sweat of Kraut beer
glasses for the answer in his definitive,
comparative study of the world's bars.
They, too, will hear sometime and smile
just a bit. ' '
I suppose we have no right to curse
time and its oppressiveness. Once again,
two years ago, Frank Porter Graham
stood at a podium in Raleigh and dazzled
a student gathering with the prophetic
logic of saint's visions. His white head
uplifted, he intoned a chordal progression
of American history that shattered the
Ban Law's glass house justifications. We
rejoiced, being young, and con
temptuously scorned the law; he picked
I up the pieces carefully from the floor,
mended them with his forgiveness and
- placed them on the University's trophy
i shelf. You must remember, he said at the
time, that this is not the last battle by far
',; this University will have in its struggle
' for survival. There will be many more.
Some day, I think, we might learn to
. emulate his quiet persistence, y
. tience and a small measur&of his love.
Certainly there is a solace in this
: triumph although we will' never ex
f perience its full benefit. We were just a
few of the strange, enigmatic creatures
that charge through the halls every four
years in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye. And somehow, we all were changed.
We learned, - as Miss Moore said it,
the student studies voluntarily, refusing
to be less
than individual. He
riv his oDinion
and tfien rests on
6
it"
he renders service when there is
Short And Long
Court Verdict
To the Editor:
, For two hours last Friday morning I
sat in . Chapel ill Recorder's Court at
tempting to study for a Master's exam in
social theory while-waiting to pay a fine.
I found it very difficult to concentrate on
Max Weer's discussion of the rational
legal judicial systems in many modern
Western states in view of the court pro
ceedings. Before sentencing a long-haired stu
dent, Judge L. J. Phipps asked the stu
dent why he had long hair. The student
said he played in a rock and roll band.
The Judge censured him, and then asked
him what the name of the group was so
that he would be sure never to listen to it
The next' defendant was a clean-cut
young black man. The Judge asked him
where he was at 8:00 p.m. the previous
. evening (probably to find out if ha was
participating in the demonstration on
Franklin St.). He said he was playing in a
rock and roll group. Judge Phipps then
said, "That shows you don't have to have
Years?'
On A Litigation
no reward, and is too reclusive for some
things to seem to touch
him, not-because he has no feeling but
because he has so much.
Lux et Veritas, Lux libertas. Is there
that much difference? H we have left
Concrete
By BERNARD SAMONDS
Special to The Daily Tar Heel
As I was walking downtown yesterday
evening, I noticed four boys carrying
small placards as they slowly marched
around Silent Sam. Naturally, I was
curious to find out what was going on, so
I stopped nearby and began reading the
signs as the" group circled past me.
"Down with Grass," one sign proclaimed.
"Stomp the Weeds," and "Grass is NOT
for Students," two other signs read. The
fourth sign stated, "Grass is Ex
pensive," Obviously, I thought I had stumbled
onto a new protest movement, a protest
against marijuana. Realizing the poten
tial news value, I decided to delay my
trip downtown and to interview the
demonstrators. I approached "Down with
Grass" first.
"Why are you protesting against mari
juana?" ' . .
"Marijuana? We're not protesting
that. It's the grass,'.' he replied.
"No talking during the demonstra
tion," Stomp the Weeds quickly told
him.
Grass? Protesting grass? Maybe the
story was much bigger than I had
. thought. Anyway, I
waited until the
finished and in
Weeds and Down
demonstrators were
terviewed Stomp the
withGrass.
"Did I hear you correctly, Stomp?
You are protesting against grass?"
"That's right. The green stuff is spr
inging up everywhere, all over the cam
pus." -
"And you don't like that," I in
quired. -
"No. It's expensive, inconvenient, and
wasteful," Stomp replied.
"Could you explain that? I'm not quite
sure that I follow you," I said.
"My first point was the expense. Hir
ing all those. men to plant and replant
grass every year costs money. And don't
forget about the men we pay to cut it and
long hair to play in a rock and roll grouo
Ho thpn sain "Jiidt fnr Vi Tm
you a lighter fine." Perhaps we have
discovered a new formula for legal jus
tice for. black people: They must manage
to have their cases follow those of lo- .
haired white students on the docket.
John C. Wheeler
Graduate Student
Sociology
Bad Habit
Not Virtue
To The Editor:
I read with amusement and sympathy
the letter from Mr. George Flink in
Saturday's DTH. True . the cigarette
(tobacco) industry is vital to the
economy of North Carolina but please do
not insult the intelligence of North Caroli
nians by trying to make a bad habit seem
to be a virtue
It has definitely been proven that
smoking is bad for one's health. There is
a very strong link with smoking and lung
cancer. I wonder if Mr. Flink knows cr
has seen anyone dying from lung cancer?
I have known them and I have seen
them, only too many. It's tragic and it's
horrible. And I wonder if Mr. Flink has
ever seen an 8 or 9 year old with a
cigarette hanging from his moouth. I
assure you, that, is an amusing sight un
til you think what that boy's insides will
look like in ten, twenty, or thirty years.
- Mr. Flink has suggested that anyone,
irregardless of age should be allowed to
buy cigarettes, and -what else, Mr
Flink?
If a person wishes to smoke that's his
problem, but common sense tells us that
children have to be restricted in many
things at least until they know the possi
ble consequences of what they do! And
certainly let us not attempt to make
cigarette smoking a virtue, IT'S NOT!!.
Edward Greenberg
308 Lewis Dorm
The Daily Tar Heel is pub
lished by the University of
North Carolina Student Publi
cations Board, daily except
Mondays, examinations periods
and vacations.
Offices are on the second
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Telephone numbers: editorial,
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iness, circulation, advertising
933-1163. Address: Box 1080,
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Second class postage paid at
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N.lC.
Subscription rates: $9 per
year; $5 per semester.
something for you to remember us by, let
it be this. It's not much, Alma Mater,
because undergraduates are notoriously
poor, but it's the finest gift we could af
ford. Nightmare
to spread fertilizer on it, so more grass
will grow back."
"Can't you imagine what would hap
pen if they didn't pUnt the grass," I ask
ed. "The rain would wash the soil away
and mud would. . ."
"Precisely," Down interrupted.
"That's where inconvenience comes in.
We want to concrete the campus."
"Concrete the campus!" I was as-,
tounded.
Rather calmly he said, "Brick
sidewalks now link most of the buildings
on campus and border the grass areas.
To avoid trampling the grass, we have to
walk on the sidewalks. Of course, you can
see some footpaths on campus where the
shortcuts got the best of our willpowers,
too. And don't forget those chains. Have
you ever tried to jump one of those
chains when you were late for class?
Talk about inconvenience."
"Surely, you can't be serious," I
finally managed to interrupt him. "Con
crete the campus? No one would ever go
along with that. The thought is in
conceivable. It's unconstitutional! And as
far as I. . ."
"It's fcr the benefit of the students!
Don't you see? We concrete the campus.
ZAP! No more parking problems. Who
needs a multi-level parkirg lot when
you've got a concrete campus to park
cars on? No more muddy, grass-covered
shoes from walking across the campus
lawns and no more obstacle course
athletics with those chains. Why waste
space and money by planting grass.
What this campus needs is concrete,
acres and acres of concrete."
While Down with Grass was still ham
mering away with his concrete ideas, I
slipped away and ran across the campus.
Thank goodness. It was still there, that
beautiful green grass. It must have been
a bad dream, a terribly bad dream.
Concerete the campus? Never! From
now on, I'll stick to the sidewalk and
forget about the shortcuts, because what
this campus really needs is grass!
. s