PAGE TWO
THE DAILY TAR HEEL
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1954
From The Charlotte News
Why Tar Heels
Are Different "
Writing in The State magazine, Reporter
Chester Davis of Winston-Salem, a transplant
ed Montanan, casts about for an answer to
this question: -'What's Different About Tar
Heels?"
Davis starts out from the premise that
there is something different about Tar Heels,
a premise that we accept as valid. For evi
dence he points to the popularity of The
State itself as a sign that Tar Heels are hungry
for the morsels of information about their
state found in that publication- He cites the
rash of historical dramas as proof that Tar
Heels, like Texans, like to brag about their
state and its history.
In trying to justify his premise, Davis digs
into history to show that North Carolina nev
er developed the plantation system as fully,
as did other Southern states; that the waves
of migration went elsewhere, leaving ours a
closely-knit homogeneous people; that the
lack of good harbor facilities in the east and
the rugged mountains in the west brought a
bout a relative physical isolation, and forced
Tar Heels over a long period to rely largely
on their resources; that the rural atmosphere,
with its small towns and villages, has prevail
ed against the trend to big cities elsewhere.
All of these historical and geographical
forces may well have had a hand in making
North Carolina different. It seems to us, how
ever, that Davis has overlooked what is prob
ably the greatest single influence upon the
personality of Tar Heelia. .
Something more is needed to explain why,
with one or two notable exceptions, North
Carolina has managed to avoid the pitfalls of
cheap demagoguery so frequently a charac
teristic of southern public affairs and why
good, clean and steadily progressive govern
ment has been the rule for more than a half
century. That something more, we believe,
is the University of North Carolina.
For many decades, the enlightened, lib
eral, progressive atmosphere at Chapel Hill
has made an impact on young Tar Heels who
have left the place for business, the profes
sions, agriculture, the arts and sciences, and
public service with a higher appreciation of
the really important values of life and with a
tolerance for new and bold ideas and pro
grams. And in recent years, one branch of
the University, the Institute of Government,
has had an immeasurable effect upon the
quality and standards of local and state gov
ernment. No listing of the factors that have
shaped Tar Heelia would be complete with
out the University.
YOU Said It
Editor:
To keep the record straight I want to say that
the statement in The Daily Tar Heel of December
12, reporting a meeting which I attended, in which
I was quoted as saying that an educational institu
tion which did not have a good intercollegiate ath
letic program did not deserve the name of Univer
sity, was entirely wrong.
I did not say any such thing nor did I hear any
body else say it. If I should say any such thing peo
ple would think I had taken leave of my senses.
There are many great schools that do not have any
such program. To name a few we would list Chica
go, Emory, Reed College, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and many more whose names do not ap
pear in the Sunday papers as having won or lost ath
letic events.
A. W. Hobb
t33)t JBmlp tjsr Jjttl
The official student publication of the Publi
cations Board of the University of North Carolina,
where it is published
V
of the ymwfsrtjr.
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pp?n?4 tt doors
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examination and vaca
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ing the official Sum
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second class matter at
the post office in
Chapel HiiL N. C, un
der the Act of March
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rates: mailed, $4 per
year, $2.50 a semester;
delivered, $6 a year,
$3.50 a semester.
Editor ROLFE NEILL
Managing Editor 'LOUIS KRAAR
Business Manager AL SHORTT
Sports Editor - - TOM PEACOCK
News Editor
Associate Editor
Feature Editor
Asst. Spta. Eds.
Sub. Manager .
Cir. Manager
Asst. Sub. Manager
Asst. Business Manager
t Society Editor
Ed Yoder
Advertising Manager
; Jennie Lynn
Vardy Buckalew, John Hussey
. Tom Witty
Don Hogg
Bill Venable
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Eleanor Saunders
Jack Stilwell
EDITORIAL STAFF Bill O
John Beshara.
Sullivan, James Duvall,
Annie & Gun
Ted Rosenthal
Charlotte Greenwood, Gertrude
Lawrence, Ethel Merman, Mary
Martin and Lynne Torres? The
great ladies of the modern per
iod of musical comedy have a
potential addition to their ranks.
We saw Miss - Torres for the
first time in Durham; she starred
in the Stanley Woolf production
of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your
Gun, sponsored by the Civic
Drama Guild of New York, which
is now touring North Carolina.
The theatre was old and in dis
repair; the upholstery of the
seats was cracked, in some places .
torn; the walls and ceiling plas
ter spread a dirty grey around '
us; the boxes which had once
flanked the stage had been
ripped down, leaving raw scars,
which contrasting with the sur
rounding wall area hammered
unpleasantly at our eyes. In
place of an orchestra, seven or
eight pieces dominated by the
sound of an organ cruised
through the score with the ef
fect of a dance band; there just
wasn't enough power coming
from the pit to make the pro
duction sound like a "real" musi
cal comedy.
With the exceptions of Roger
Franklin, competent in the male
lead role of Frank Butler, and
Irving Karesh who played Chief
Sitting Bull wth a good feeling
for humor, the cast which sup
ported Miss Torres was wretched
poor voices, poorer acting, al
though Jesse Ramirez did some
good specialty dancing.
Certainly circumstances, ex
cept perhaps by contrast, did not
conduce to our reaction toward
Miss Torres, yet she made the
strongest impression of budding
greatness we've felt since having
witnessed Geraldine Page's per
formance in an off-Broadway ver
sion of Summer and Smoke.
Even from the balcony her
stage presence was captivating.
Her impish gestures possess the
sort of natural warmth and
charm which quickly win an aud
ience, and are the most valuable
asset a musical comedy artist can
have. She. sings well to boot.
She made an adorable Annie;
both the movements of her
body, and her changing facial"
expressions indicated a rare stage
sense, and this, coupled with the
even rarer ability of transmit
ting a quality of sweetness, makes
her the sort of girl you want to
put your arms around and pro
tect. Judy Garland produced sim
ilar feelings in the audience ia
her now-famous appearance at
the Palace in New York a while
back.
We don't like rave reviews;
we're suspicious when we read
them, we feel even more un
comfortable writing one. But this
road company of Annie Get Your
Gun is on tour in the South, and
may be giving a performance in
your hometown when you're
home for a weekend or perhaps
between semesters. If it is, go see
Lynne Torres the girl is Great.
Dangerous Rd.
To Orange
C. T. Andrews
The several roads to Orange
County and the University of
North Carolina Sunday were
crowded. As a matter of. fact,
roads the entire state over were
crowded. From North, East,
South and West, students were
returning to school following a
two-week vacation.
And families and friends were
returning from long weekends to
begin a new year of labor. It was
a busy weekend for our high
ways, for our highway patrolmen,
and for those who count and
statistise accidents.
Officials at the University
should have had more foresight
when they made out the 1953r
1954 scholastic schedule. Requir
ing that students return to clas
ses on a Monday morning follow
ing some fifteen or sixteen days
at home should be corrected. On
a holiday weekend such as the
past one, with highway fatalities
rising each year, there is enough
traffic to insure our patrolmen
of earning their salaries.
Why, then, put some five thou
sand students on the road to
Chapel Hill?
Cooperation with the State in
their battle against highway fa
talities would increase safety.
Administration foresight in this
matter would be a great aid.
There Must Be Something I Can Do About This'
YOU Said It
Bfvf x&ar f- rs&- iax
Washington Merry-Go-RoUnd Drew Pearson
2
WASHINGTON A lot of peo
ple have been asking me if it
was true that I had a visit with
Harry Truman in Kansas City
the other day, and if so, what he
said to me and I said to him.
The answer on point 1 is in the
affirmative. The answer on point
2 is that we had an extremely
pleasant talk.
If anyone was looking for fire
works, I'm afraid they'll be disappointed.
I went out to
Kansas City to
interview M r .
Truman for a
television pro
gram opening
this week in
"which I wanted
to ask him about
his record for
PEARSON combatting com
munism and the famous remark
about "red herrings."
Since the interview, most peo-.
pie have seemed more interested
in the personal side of the visit,
doubtless remembering some dif
ferences of opinion we once had
over Maj. Gen. Harry Vaughan,
of whom I was critical and to
whom Mr. Truman was loyal.
That came up only in a very in
direct manner.
Mr. (Truman has a rather mod
est office in the Federal Reserve
Bank at which he arrives just as
early as he did at his desk in the
White House. Though now 69
years old, he loeked in- the pink
of condition, younger and more
rested than he did as President.
When I told him so, he replied:
"I feel better than I deserve."
Around his office were shelves
lined chiefly with history books.
Tve always read a lot of hist
ory," he said. "And now I'm
' trying to write some myself."
On his desk was a huge stack
of mail, and when I remarked on
it, he said: "I get about 1,000
letters a day and do my best to
get it answerecL A lot of it has
to be answered personally. But
my job is getting this book writ
ten. I try to finish about 10,000
words a day."
"As one who makes his living
writing," I observed, "that's
quite a chore."
"It's only in rough form so
far," Mr. Truman explained. "My
research staff comes in and I
dictate from memory my recol
lection of events. Then they
check my memory back against
dates and the written record.
We've already finished about one
volume.
"Sometimes," mused Mr. Tru
man, "I wish I hadnt undertaken
these doggone memoirs. By the
time I finish paying taxes I won't
have any profit from them. But
I wanted to do this for history.
I .went through some important
and tumultuous years and I think
it's my duty to record them.
"This country has given me a
lot, and one thing I want to do
when I finish these memoirs is to
go out and lecture at colleges
. about the duties and obligations
of citizenship. I want to talk to
the youngsters, not the older peo
ple, and tell them what a great
country this is and the obligation
they have to keep it that way."
Mr. Truman talked of many
things, much of it off the rec
ord. "Whenever you wrote anything
mean," he said, "Roy Roberts
would play it up in the Kansas
City Star. Whenever you wrote
anything nice about me, he
would omit your column alto
gether. It gave me and others a
lopsided opinion of what you
were writing.
"That's the trouble with the
newspapers today. They only
want to print one side of the
story. Roy Roberts blames me
for indicting him, but the fact is
I didn't know about it until well
after the Justice Department had
begun the case."
The ex-president made no crit
icism of President Eisenhower,
though he did talk about some of
the big problems facing him.
'Tve been very careful in what
I said about my successor," he
explained, "but the biggest prob
lem facing any president is to
sell the American people on a
policy. They have to be led for
ward. It's not a matter of keep
ing your ear to the ground to find
out what the American people
are' saying and then trying to
please them.
"You can hear one opinion on
Grand Street and another opinion
a few blocks away on Baltimore
Street. And the President of the
United States has to mold that
opinion and lead it forward.
(That's the biggest challenge every
president faces, and one which
he cannot escape."
The conversation drifted round
to our only other living ex-president,
Herbert Hoover, and the
fact that he was long ignored
after he left the White House.
"It was always glad," said Mr.
Truman, "that I helped bring Mr.
Hoover backintp! the public' eye."
College Life Is Good
Robert A. Smith
We and others have gone to great lengths to
point out the evident deficiencies of the Univer
sity. Today we'd like to mention a few of the vir
tues of University life here.
Foremost, the student in a university leads a
good life. Will anyone quarrel with this conten
tion? He has everything here that a man can want.
He may, if he chooses, also lead a full life.
The student at the University of North Caro
lina has a unique opportunity for self -development.
He may pursue as he sees Jit these four primary
facets of self-education: (1) Reading; (2) Writing;
(3) Conversation; and (4) Leisure.
(1) and (2) are for the introspective, primarily,
and (3) and (4) are for extroverts, in the main.
The best students will engage in all four pursuits.
(4), which is sometimes ignored, is of particu
lar and extraordinary value: for in it we also in
clude Thinking (which no student should overlook
in the general confusion of collegiate existence).
Another point. Amidst the self-contradictions,
lies, and demagogic emissions, characteristic of
cold and hot wars (and of peace, too), there is
one self-evident truth that emerges from the vor
tex pure and uncontaminated, it seems to us. That
is: Man's quest and yearning for freedom. All ide
ologies to the contrary, no man wants to be a slave.
Which brings us to our point, that of all groups in
society probably no other has as much freedom as
the student in a university.
Student politicians accustomed to screaming at
South Building may think this a curious statement.
Yet, compare student life with any other and we
believe that it will more than stand the test.
We in this University should be thankful for
our relative freedom; we nave more than students
at Duke or Wake Forest, if you want to make a
comparison. Furthermore, you'll have less free
dom after you graduate (particularly if you get
married.)
Indeed, in a goverments of checks and balances
of counter - balancing protests and affirmations
such as ours, the university (along with the
press) is the traditional advotate for the allow
ance of the maximum freedom consistent with
good sense. We won't mention any of the other
numerous advantages of University life for fear
of overlaboring obvious points.
We know that a university has '. . . Something
(a weak word, but broad and all-inclusive in mean
ing). We know that alumni never get tired of re
turning here. ("Look at that sunset through the
trees; ain't she pretty, boy?", said one alumnus,
lingering on the campus after seeing a football
game this fall.)
We know that university life is better than
army life. (Even though, unfortunately, in a civil
ized community there is no greater chaos to be
found in a men's dormitory in a liberal university.)
We do not regret having come here.
That Poem Again
Editor: -
In his "Lines on Literature" in The Daily Tar
Heel of December 18, Palinurus usually a fairly
perceptive critic entirely missed the point of the
poem submitted to him for explication by "the mod
ern poet, Mr. Bill Wiatt." Mr. Wiatt, in the DTH
of the fifth of January, further obscured the issue
when he submitted what he purported to be the au
thentic explication of his literary masterpiece.
The next day Mr. Mike Simpson in a brazen attempt
to destroy the value of literary criticism "naively"
approved of the interpretation presented by Pali
nurus. I should like to present what appears to me to be
the correct interpretation of this poem. The poem
is not about Christ, mathematics, or carpenter
strikes; it is about murder! This fragmentary piece
is a visual image of the thoughts that probably ran
through Mr. Wiatt's mind one morning when his
wife beat him to the bathroom.
In a moment of overpowering fury Mr. Wiatt
saw his wife's body spread out on the bathroom
floor; hence the "X" for the title (also for "X"
marks the spot). The clawhammers are what he, in
a moment of towering rage, used to brutally mur
der his wife. (In answer to Palinurus' query, "Why
clawhammers?" I will give what should have been
the obvious answer. Mr. Wiatt is a student and not
a mechanic who would use a ball pen or an up
holsterer who would use a tack hammer; so a claw
hammer would be the type with which he is most
familiar.)
After having so brutally murdered his wife,
Mr. Wiatt was struck with a sense of guilt and
grabbed some towels from . the rack to wipe the
blood from the floor and the hammer. (The towels
were dripping with blood and not water (as one
would imagine from Mr. Wiatt's explanation). How
ever, in the worst of us conscience must return;
and the poem ends suddenly and dramatically if
one is perceptive. When Mr. Wiatt's conscience re
turned and he realized what he was doing; drop
ping the hammers still wrapped in the towels, he
rushed into his study and shot himself because of
his horrible crime.
My conclusion must necessarily differ with that
of Palinurus and Mr. Wiatt. The poem is obviously
the outburst of a mind with definite homicidal
tendencies. Because of his innocent interpretation!
Palinurus did noi do full justice to Mr. Wiatt; he
failed to appreciate the vivid imagery of which
Mr. Wiatt is capable and the wealth of detail which
he can pack into a few lines. Mr. Wiatt's interpre
tation was obviously an alibi to hide what had
been in his mind. I agree with Palinurus when he
says that this is an excellent poem; and in regard
to Mr. Simpson, I will only say that his naivete
condemns more ably than I would be able to dp.
Mr. Wiatt's mind is an uncluttered one, a fact
which Palinurus recognized; but because he did not
realize it was a homicidal one, he also missed the
moral of this poetic fragment, which is obviously:
Mrs. Wiatt, let your husband use the bathroom first
Henry R. Rupp
Into The Viscera
Editor:
Progress or a Reformation is not a little boy wit&
a new set of miniature carpenter tools exuberantly,
but without taste, sawing and hammering away on
the living room furniture.
One should examine one's passionate desires to
set the world on fire to determine whether one
would honestly like to burn the evil rotteness and
uselessness in the world, or whether one merely
likes to strike matches.
It is unhealthy to revel in the means of progress
when these means embody violent conflict, either
on a physical or mental plane. If it takes spilled
blood and cut throats, literally or figuratively, to sig
nify real (as against pseudo educational progress
maybe we should wait til spilled blood and cut
throats are at a premium in the world which to
day they are not.
.As for eliminating unnecessary student organiza
tions, who can tell but what rambling, blatant edi
torial columnists might not be eliminated in the
same purge.
That the University is not ideal in many ways
can, no doubt, be proved. (That there are drones and
parasites in South Building is possible. There may
be rotten academic trees (remember they once were
green and leafy) that need to be cut down. But
let us not in our over-anxiousness to do good tear
up everything in sight. Let us pinpoint the wrong
or evil, identify it, and work on it, specifically.
If we are going to have a University with a heart,
lungs, stomach and sinews, as has, been suggested,
let it also have some bowels and a bladder natural
elimination is perhaps what the Reformer is try
ing to say.
Mike Simpson
Others Say
Irrationally held truths may be more dangerous
than reasoned errors. Thomas Huxley.
Foreign travel ought to soften prejudices, religi
ous or political, and liberalize a man's mind; but how
many times people travel for the purpose of getting
up their rancour against all that is opposed to their
nations.- C. B. Fairbanks.
Most of the time we think we're sick, it's all in
the mind. Thomas Wolfe.
Man does not live by bread alone, even pre-sliced
bread. Denis Brogan.
The safest road to Hell is the gradual one the
gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turn
ings, without mileposts, without signs. C. S. Lewis.