Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Nov. 12, 1939, edition 1 / Page 1
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1 J TD DITORIALS: j i Student Government Vi. rxiinitra jatr ana Mh'gkt!? ecttttr THE ONLY COLLEGE DA ILY IN THE SOUTHEAST- Z 525 VOLUME XLVm ButlneM: 9S86 Osculation: 9881 CHAPEL HILL, N. C SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1939 Editorial: 4355$ Km: 4311 NIf&t: 690S NUMBER 51 Ask Foir ma ID) If oTD) 9 Bradshaw Lists Events That Led To Action Of Council i Seeking to give the sequence of council's action directing that the November issue of the Carolina Buccaneer be destroyed, Dean of Students Francis F. Bradshaw fient a letter to the Daily Tar Heel yesterday in which he describes the "steadily growing volume of criticism" which has come to ad ministration offices. Dean Bradshaw emphasized the ad ministration's efforts to keep student problems within strident governmental processes. He also said that no threat of administration action on the Buc caneer was made. Dean Bradshaw's letter follows: To the Editor Dear Sir: Your readers as members of the Publications Union may be interested in the following statement of events preceding the Student council's action of Friday night regarding the Buc caneer: 1. There has been a steadily grow ing volume of criticism of the Buc caneer among members and friends of the University. Sample statements from two people who work to promote good-will for the institution are these : (a) "These criticisms have come from high school students, from high school teachers and principals. They have come from members ofthe State Legislature and from parents of stu dents' of the University. . At times .friends of the University have donat ed contributions to place the Uni versity's publications in the high and prep school libraries. It has been ask ed that the Buccaneer be left off. Car olna students have said that they would not dare to have a copy of the Buc caneer found in their homes. It has been my lot to have high school boys -tell me that their parents will .not. let them go to Carolina because the Uni versity 'permits the Buccaneer to be published." (b) "You have pointed out to me that our theory here is that students will best . regulate their own affairs. "With that in general I agree. But Tear after year the Buccaneer con tinues to provoke criticism. Not in frequently students call for a cleansing of the Buccaneer and resolutions are made. But the publication slips back into its evident natural form. It stands as a paradox how otherwise substan tial campus citizens can get out the sort of publication the Buccaneer is. It's a sort of campus Mr. Hyde. The magazine actually does more damage to the University's good name than docu mentary evidence can show. I still hope that students will regulate the maga zine, but I believe that outright aboli (Continued on page i, column A) Weaver Says Bac Is Hurting UNC Fred Weaver, who advanced from the vice-nresidency of the student body to a position in the office of the Dean of Students, wrote the follow ing letter yesterday: To the Editor Dear Sir: Out of such occurrences as Friday's Student council action there usually arises the cry of tyranny and the (Continued on page 2, column S) 1 FRED WEAVER Assistant to Dean of Students 1 .' I v f events which led to the student II r ' J. .. s -j - ' s : Dean Francis F. Bradshaw, pro tagonist for student self-government, who catches criticism from both the more student control faction and the faculty domination faction. FINANCIAL GRIEF CAUSED B?DELAYU Most Serious Trouble Will Arise Over Ads Disi'egarding. the pros and cons of the Tightness of the Buccaneer, techni cal difficulties in either killing or de laying the humor magazine amount to quite a bit of financial and per sonal grief, Bert Premo, Buccaneer business manager, said yesterday. "It will be difficult to estimate the losses due to the action of the Student council until it has been decided what will be eliminated from the November issue," Premo stated. Actual printing of 4,100 copies now under padlock cost $400, he said, al though this loss will be slightly modi fied by use of a few sections of the (Continued on page 4, column 4) Take A Middle Coarse-Pagk Carl Pugh, last year's Buccaneer editor, who is still on the campus, sub mitted the following requested state ment on the present situation: "There is nothing more virtuous than a reformed Buccaneer editor. He has heard the music of praise, seen the glory of printer's ink and felt himself Infamous, an experience not without sweetness. He has stood apart from the crowd, a little boy with a red halo. Mine is pinned neatly on the last page of a dusty (Continued on page 2, column 6) CARL PUGH Ex-Editor of Buccaneer Buc Editor Goes . Home Unaware Of All Happenings A By last night everyone on .'the cam pus had learned either the entire story, part of the story or at least a few rumors as to the monkey wrench the Student council threw into the works of the Buccaneer everyone, that is, except one person rather in timately connected with the publica tion Bill Stauber, the editor. Stauber went home to Rural Hall on Friday afternoon, attended the Carolina-Davidson game Saturday and from all accounts has not yet returned to Chapel Hill to find out that the issue he worked on this past month will not be allowed to reach the students. :? There have been at least four, meet ings concerning the Buccaneer in which either Dean Bradshaw, Fred Weaver, vthe Student council, the PU board, or various campus leaders have participated. But Bill Stauber was only at one of them. Jimmy Davis, Mac Nisbet, and Ed Rankin visited him in his room Thursday night to tell him there ' had been several ob jections raised to certain parts of his November Buccaneer. He was very amiable about the matter told them that he put out the humor mag azine as he thought best. Bill Stauber was given no inkling that this warning was anything more than the numerous squawks all Buc caneer (anekrother ) editors received: He was not told the pressure put up on the administration for the last few years by influential and affluent per sons in the state would descend in one tremendous avalanche upon his head.. He was not told the Student council would order destroying this issue.. Crisis In Student Government We devote today's front page to the most important issue of stu dent government to arise since the discovery of the ill-famed cheat ing ring in the winter of 1936: student council suppression of the November issue of the Carolina Buccaneer. There is one fundamental question: Is the action of the council authorized under the present student government setup; or stated differently, is the action of the student council high-handed and arbitrary? Facts of the case appear in this issue but there are some par ticularly salient ones which should be brought to light : 1) According to the present organization, the student council could merely issue an injunction delaying distribution of the Buc caneer. 2) Action was taken in the absence of Editor Bill Stauber. 3) Besides the minor argument against scrapping," the present financial loss of approximately $500, there is the possible loss of na tional advertising contracts, dealing with irate advertisers who had planned synchronized advertising programs, and short time between release date of a two-weeks-f rom-now November issue and the De cember number. I) Warnings to Stauber were mere hints which could not be in terpreted as official administration or student regulation which would suppress this issue. 5) After evidence that the December issue and subsequent edi tions were on a higher plane, President Jim Davis did not relate this evidence to the administration. We agree in toto if the Buccaneer is harming the Univer sity's prestige and endangering its esteem with the fund-providing state legislature its policy should be raised and "smut" deleted. It is understood many administration members and faculty mem bers, along with a few students, were disgusted with the first, but illegal, action of the student legislature which approved the Buc caneer. Few will contend that any member of the legislature was aware of the mounting outside criticism. The bill was not presented aim ing at a "clean-up." The bill calfed for taking the Buc off the ad ministration's fee-collecting list. Dean Bradshaw says that no threat was made that the adminis-1 tration would take action if "something wasn't done," and it is hard j to believe one issue, not materially (if any) more obscene than the last, would cause a state-wide revolt. ; But just as student government and the democratic process was nearing its goal with the two-party system and division of powers between a legislative and judicial body, one branch steps out of bounds and, with a paternal attitude, hastily directs an action in volving the basis of student self-government. (Continued on Editor t - : - : f i" x " ; rr;- i It '. - v4 f . . - - THEFT OF STORED BUCS ATTEMPTED Door, Lock Tampered At Orange Printery It was reported yesterday that the Orange Printshop was entered Friday night and the lock on the door to the room where the November issues of the Carolina Buccaneer are stored was tampered with. It is known that a printshop employee was repairing a door reputedly leading to the Buc caneer storage room yesterday after noon. An employee of the printshop said no copies were missing "after an ac curate count." Every window was locked before the printshop was closed and the only person in the building was the press man. The storage rooms are in the basement and the' noise of the press would prevent the hearing of any or dinary noise. Circulation of the magazines, sched uled for Friday afternoon, was delay ed when the Publications union board, cooperating with the Student council, agreed to delay distribution until to morrow (Monday). page 2t column 4) No Action On November Issue By .MARTIN HARMON Twenty campus leaders called together Friday afternoon by Jim Davis unanimously recommended that the Buccaneer be "cleaned up" in December, but took no action on the November issuej which then lay in the Orange printshop awaiting delivery. Discussion ran from Editor Bill 13taubers family background to the reaction of the board of trustees. Stauber was not present. The conclusion was that the Buc, whether favored by the student body or not, may cost the University too much prestige in the state, if the present editorial policy is not modified. But the conferees, in their resolu- tion, seemed to believe that December would be early enough to clean up. (With this sample expression of student opinion under their belts, the Student Council Friday night order ed the Publications Union board to de stroy every copy of the November Buc, and issue another one.) PURPOSE The meeting Friday afternoon was called by invitation, but the doors were opened to all who had heard indirectly about it. The purpose, Davis said, was to find out what the student body really thinks about the Buc, and to tell Stauber. It was intended, he add ed, that Stauber be present, but the editor had gone home before his in vitation could be delievered. (Stauber lives in Rural Hall, 12 miles from Winston-Salem, where Car olina played Davidson yesterday aft ernoon.) Fred Weaver, Dean Bradshaw's as sistant who had been invited, Davis said, to answer questions, delivered himself of a lengthy tirade against the Buc. He painted a black picture of resentment which, he said, the humor mag is causing throughout the state. He cited instances of protest in high places. HINTS Davis reviewed numerous hints and warnings which the Council had given Stauber, and partly inferred that pro mises had been made. Less it be thought that the editor had broken his word, Mac Nisbet, senior class mem ber of the council, hastily put in that no "definite' agreements or conces sions had been concluded. Davis said that Stauber told him he sends his Buccaneers home to his mother who approves of them as col lege humor magazines; and the presi dent remarked that Mrs. Davis would not. Whereupon Vice-President Jack Fairley declared that he likewise sends the Buccaneer home, and Mrs. Fair (Continued on page 4, column t) Head of PU Board In Thick Of Fight Ed Rankin, senior member and pre sident of the FU board, has called a special meeting of the board tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock to consider the student council recommendation that the Buccaneer be destroyed. Elected last spring to a position that seemed minor in the extensive student government setup, he finds his organization drawn into the front ranks of the battle for student self rule. Other student members on the board are Ed Megson and Don Bishop. Fac ulty members are Walter Spearman and R. B. Sharpe, J. M. Lear is the permanent non-voting auditor. Ok 1 0 ED RANKIN President of PU Board Is Taken ( y i .... Jim Davis, president of the student body, who led the movement for suppression .... BURNING OF MAGS REAL PROBLEM No Precedent In 12-Year History While the November issue of the Buccaneer began to yellow in a print shop cellar, campus historians sought precedent or parallel in the humor magazine's 12 -hectic years of exis tance and found none. The Buc was banned in 1934 by the student council. But the action then was taken after the publication of an issue not before. Never has a stu dent council found itself in possess ion of 3,000 new magazines which it didn't want and wouldn't give away. It's a physical problem now, as well as an ethical one. Who's going to de stroy nearly a ton of printed paper? (Continued on page 2, column 6) Fairley, Nisbet Against Abolition Regardless of how he voted in the Student Council action of Friday night, Jack Fairley, .vice-president of the student body, made no bones about his position in the "4 o'clock Friday afternoon" meeting when he said he favored distribution of the issue. Mac Nisbet, senior class council representative, also present at the meeting called by Jim Davis, student body president, expressed the same opinion as Fairley. Both Nisbet and Fairley concurred in making unani mous the opinion that change in policy is necessary. JACK FAD2LEY Student Council Member
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 12, 1939, edition 1
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