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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2T, 19S? PAGE TWO THE DAILY TAR HEEL President Creasy & The 'Politicians' President Tom Creasy's recent remark, "Campus politics are only a necessary evil," brings to mind the linn statement made last year by political science Professor Wood house that the campus is not big enough for political parties. We dissent. Campus politics may be a "necessary evil" for some colleges and uni versities. Hut we see the phrase as wildly inapplicable to the University of North Car olina, where politics is rooted in the very sotd of the place, where campus politicians began making speeches in the 1 8th century. Surely, a student running for office with the support of one of the parties is en gaged in no less educational a pursuit than a student reading about the political cam paigns of America in History 72. Political activity justifies itself on more than an ed ucational basis, however. During President Creasy's own student days at Carolina, po litical panics have reached a new high in liveliness and service to the campus; they have grown large and largely respectable and from their ranks come students willing, for their own good and that of their party and the University, to tackle jobs nobody else wants, the 'tedious, time-consuming tasks that must be done in student govern ment. If student politics at the University is only a "necessary evil" it is an evil that ex ists in cveiy free and deliberating society, where there must, from the nature of men, be opposite parties, and discords and dissen sions. Thomas Jefferson remarked that an assoc iation of men who will not cjiiarrel with one another is a thing which never yet ex isted, and that is still true for every free association we know anything about. Out of these disagreements, political parties spring naturally, consolidate, and then keep things going, wheels turning. That's the way it is here. Maybe Tom Creasy wotdd like to change it: we wouldn't. It is high time that those elected to high office stopped calling politics bad names. The survival of a democracy, the sur vival of even a student democracy, depends for its life on politicians, find politicians, from the president of -the student body down should face their responsibility to the dem ocratic system which put them in office. ' If 'the word' "leadership" means any thing to President Creasy, it should mean, not sco 11, but vocal and frequent support for the student political system. The lesson of history is that a community without po litical parties sooner or later pays a heavy penalty. Viewed in that light, the campus party system becomes, not a "necessary evil" but an essential condition to campus free dom. A Fleishman By Any Other Name And while we're talking politics, shed a tear for the University Party, poor, mis treated juto that it is. It is not enough that the Student Party should have a whopping ' Legislature ' majority and prac tically exclu sive power in the dormitories. Now the UP learns it must put up with Joel Fleishman Gene (look, and Jim Turner for four more years. These names have been the Big Three Thorns in the UP side; now that they are graduated, or on the point of gradua tion, what happens? Why, the Student Par ty finds three men with these identical names in their ranks and promptly nomi nates them to freshman class offices. It will probably be good for dorm votes 'til 1958! There just ain't no political justice for the harried old UP. We've checked: Only one Tom Creasy in the whole student directory. The official student publication of the Publi jations Board of the University of North Carolina, where it is published daily except Monday, examination and vaca tion periods and dur ing the official sum mer terms. Entered as second class matter at the post office in Chapel Kill, N. C, un der the Act of March i, 1879. Subscription rates: mailed, $4 per year, $2.50 a semester; delivered, $6 a year, $3.50 a semester. Carolina Front. 11 Site of One UruvrrMly , ... North: t iro!nw vtioth (irA OiWWti its ttH III- ( V .. ICditor CHARLES KURALT Managing Editor .FRED POWLEDGE Associate Editors LOUIS KRAAR, ED YODER Business Manager TOM SHORES Sports Editor FRED BABSON Society Editor Editorial Assistant Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Business Manager Circulation & Subscription Mgr. Advertising Manager '. Photographers Cornell Wright, R. B. Ilenly Eleanor Saunders Ruth Dalton Bernie Weiss. Bill Bob Peel Dick O'Neal Dick Sirkin Forum Brings Speakers From Both Parties 'See How Hard We're Working For German Unity' Louis Kraar Nisht Editor for this Issue .James Wright THE CAROLINA Forum, the student group that brings speak ers to campus, invited more Re publicans than Democrats this year. Despite col umnist David " Mundy's attack on the n o n partisan group, Forum records show that the organization is anything but "a speaker's bu reau for the left wing of the Democrat Party." Mundy objected to the fact that the Forum brings speakers from the .field Of politics. He said that the group was ' wast- ing student money because so few sudents attended the pro grams. And Mundy argued that Chairman Joel Fleishman has been able to "make invaluable political contacts" through his Forum business. Let's look at the record. Last year the Forum sponsored three speakers Democratic Sen. Russell Long, Republican Attorney-General Herbert Brovvnell, and non partisan diplomat Sir Roger Makins, ambassador from Great Britian. What could be fairer politically? This year 24 Democrats and 30 Republicans were invited to speak on campus. When the ini tial refusals came in, 30 GOP speakers turned Carolina down, while only five Democrats said they couldn't speak here. Mundy's objection to having speakers from politics because "you can find them on radio, television, and in the newreels" is, it seems to me, a good argu ment for having these speakers. The speakers answer student , questions after their talks and chat with students at receptions later in the evening. What could teach us more about current politics? The argument that few stu dents attend the speeches if'ap plied to other activities supported by student funds would mean thiat few student .activities would be retained. Like any other citizens of any other com munity, most students simply aren't interested in many of the things going on about them. But that's a shortcoming of man not the Carolina Forum. As far as Fleishman's politi cal future and the contracts he makes by traveling for the For um, I can only say what Fleish man himself says: "Even if it were true, most of the people I see in government won't be there when I'm .out of the Navy." BECAUSE OF the great cri ticism of my column on the recent Student Party split and the possibility of a third cam pus political party, I have a standing offer to make to any student on campus politician or not about whom I may write. If anybody about whom I write feels he (or she) has been unfairly treated, I will open this column to them upon request. I made this offer to both Joel Fleiishman and Man ning Muntzing this week. So far, neither of them have ac cepted. The offer still stands. This reporter has always be lieved in student government and campus politics. It is be cause of this firm belief in them that I have tried to write the truth about them regardless of party.This has not always been a popular task. The column on the Student Party was not a mistake. It is entirely correct in every detail. And if any members of the SP would like to disagree, this col umn is open to them. The David Reid leniency bill will reach the Legislature floor tonight after much committee debate. Reid, with a patience not often seen in campus poli tics, has been trying to tell his legislative associates that giving students a second chance will not undermine the Honor Sys tem. This reporter, who believes there can be little honor in a system that doesn't grant mer cy, urges the Legislature to sup port the leniency bill. Sir N , f . ins i P. fS -5. .: yHe7s A Liar7 WASHINGTON Generous Doug McKay, the likeable Secre tary of the Interior, let loose a blast at me the other day for describing him as generous in selling part of the Rogue River National Forest to a private mining company and for con sidering the releasing of the Navy's and Interior Depart ment's oil reserve in Alaska to private oil company exploitation. This is the first time I live been called a liar by a member of the Eisenhower Cabinet an "honor" frequently bestowed upon me during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. The fact that the Eisenhower ad ministration has been so mild mannered has caused my wife to insinuate that perhaps the old man was slipping. Of course, generous Doug Mc Kay was a little more adroit with his language than some of his democratic predecessors. They fired blunder-buss broad sides of earthy words not to be found in the dictionary. Sec retary McKay, on the other hand, reached into webslers and pulled cut such choice, high falutin terms as "calumnies of this columnist?' and "sinSLslnjr innuendo." Now the fact is all kidding aside that I have enjoyed the respite from name-calling un der Eisenhower. Tough-skinned as I am supposed to be, actual ly I don't relish having this type of bouquet hurled in my direc tion. And though I am con vinced that Secretary McKav has been far too generous with the public domain and will il lustrate this point further and more conclusively later, I still don't relish being called names by such i a nice guy as Doug McKay. The Liar Scoreboard I suppose, however, that this is inevitable. For any newspa perman worth his salt in Wash ington necessarily must step on people's toes. He must offend people. And when he does, nat urally they get mad and hurl epithets. Clinton McKinnon, publisher of the Los Angeles News, asked me the other day what the score was onthe name - calling business, and hereis part of the "you're-a-liar" tabulation. CONGRESSMAN B R A M B L E T f of California hurled the liar charge and also sued for libel to the tune of $1,000,000 when this writer accused him c(f taking kickbacks. A jury convicted him criminally just the same. ATTORNEY GENERAL FRED N. HOWSER of California also used 'the liar charge' and sued for S350.000 when this writer charged him with taking money from a Long Beach gambler. A jury found that I had told the truth. - , SEN. ELMER THOMAS of Oklahoma called me a liar when I reported that he had been speculating on' the cotton market from his priviledeg posi tion of Chairman of the Senate Agricultural Committee. Two years later the Agriculture De partment officially confirmed this, and Senator Thomas was defeated by the people of Okla homa. SENATOR MCCARTHY of Wisconsin called me a liar and all scrts of other names from the safety of the Senate floor after I reported that he received a $10,000 fee from Lustron for a brief Housing Pamphlet. Since then, a Senate Committee pass ing on McCarthy's record has confirmed this up to the hilt. CONGRESSMAN PARNELL Drew Pearson Afterward, Congress refused to approve Vaughan's medal, and a Senate committee found Vaughan guilty of considerable influence wirepulling, giving away deep freezes, demoting Army officers who tangled with etting ' Mb OS J- - 3 v - h .- s t 4 4 I ' .. ;''s HARRY TRUMAN a new (wist . . . THOMAS of New Jersey denied kickbacks and callled me a liar, but went to jail because of those kickbacks. JOHN MAR AG ON, the in fluence peddler, also called me a liar for exposing his opera tions, but ended in jail as a re sult of that expose. TAN FOR AN RACETRACK OF FICIALS called me a liar and threatened a libel suit when their violation of housing re gulations (in connivance with Maragon and Gen. H a r r y Vaughan) was exposed. They went to jail. Harry Had A Name PRESIDENT TRUMAN gave a new twist 3 to the liar charge after I critized his friend and aide. General Vaughan, for ac cepting an Argentine Medal at a time when Dictator Peron was maneuvering to get a large lean from the United States. oife Seen From England: Magnificent, Raw Vigor' Rambling On Modern Art And Egotism As The Exit - Ron Levin John Maragon, and building materials for the Tan foran Racetrack at a time when veterans were supposed to have preference. PATENOTRE TAX FRAUDS Attorney for the Patenotre family called me a liar and wrote to every newspaper threatening a libel suit after this writer exposed their fraud in connection with the sale of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Later the Patenotres pleaded guilty and paid a $1,000,000 fine. (Present owners of the inquirer were not involved.) CONGRESSMAN ANDREW M A Y of Kentucky called me a liar so many times that it got monotonous in connection with his various under-the-table ope rations ' with war contracts. He went to jail. CONGRESSMAN BREHM of Ohio threatened a libel suit over .this column's story that he ac cepted kickbacks. He was con victed. LOUISIANA SCANDALS When Bribery and corruption was charged by this column regarding Gov. Richard Leche of Louisiana "and other mem bers of the old Huey Long gang, the charge of liar echoed all over Louisiana. In the end, ail the officials named went to jail, including not only the Governor but the President of Louisiana State University. New I don't want to give the impression that I am always right. I'm. not. Being human, I make mistakes. But I endeavor when I do make them to cor rect them. Apropos cf that, I want to correct an unfair impression I gave regarding Congresswoman Leorur Sullivan of Missouri the other day when I reported that she had inserted 13 pages in the Post-Congress Congression al Record at some cost to the taxpayers. While she did make the insertion, I now find that it consisted of the full text of the Federal Trade Commission's report on coffee prices, which certainly the housewife should have a chance to read. Mrs. Sullivan's insertion made dis tribution of the report easier and I am delighted to make this clear- ' u'5 However-, regarding Secretary McKay, much as I like him, I am still convinced he has been much too generous in leasing out the public domain. Tomorrow I'll report on this further. We were all sitting in Philo sophy 41 the other day at ten o'clock discussing the plight of modern man. Our text was Ideas Have Consequences by Robert Weaver, and brother, be lieve me, if you want to be shaken up and shaken up good, j'ou might take a gander at what Weaver says.. With re gard -to modern art, the author criticizes rather sharply the ego tism prevalent in most of the various art forms. Instead of being an interpretation of the wonder and beautj- of life or cf the love of man, art has come to be little more than a recept acle for the emotional catharsis of modern man. Because of the fast and quite false mode of life existent today in .the majority of esistent today inthe majority of societies, particularly our own, the inner desires and needs of man are repressed to such an extent that a torrent of fustra tion builds up inside and must have an outlet. This precisely the point that Weaver fails to notice. It is because of the thwarting of these same desires that man has sought, found, and clung to this last possible outlet. Thus feelings of aggression, hostility, sexual impulses, and others are circumvented from their origi nal path and channelled into the line of creative endeavour. Many philosophers point out today that this factor is a basic one in the decline of modern man . . . this egotism in art. Yet, if ell the various forms of ex pression in music, painting, and ther art forms were taken away from man, it would not be too long before these desires sought another exit . . . any exit avail able. Instead of poems like Tamar by Robinson Jeffers, you might have a crime of violence very much like the one narrated ing the poem. In his poem, Apo logy for Bad Dreams. Jeffers ex plains his position as the modern artist . . . and one quite similar to those held by many others of the same ilk. In short, until man can re trace his steps somewhat and get back on the intended track, this "egotism in art" will have to do. Without it, there is no chance at all of recovery from our, and I say our . . . not his, present dilemma. YOU Said It UN Supporter Editor: Congratulations on standing up for hte United Nations! It's high time somebody did. Plere we are, 150,000,000 Americans, huddled on our continent, scan ning the skies like Walt Kelly's Churchy and half-expecting im mediate destruction to come raining down on our heads and what do we do about it? Nothing! The UN remains man's only real hope for a lasting peace. I don't think you'll have much success on this campus or any thing else, but keep plugging. It is hopeful to see somebody speak out for the UN in a day when Sen. Knwland is talking about the United States with drawing from it. Ed. M. Crater Ram's Hiatus Editor: Where goes the Ram? It isn't that I miss him so much, but I haven't been able to find any thing but Drew Pearson '(and a bout half the editorials) to disa gree with lately and I feel the need of cussing Rameses. W. L. Tayloe The Ravi is taking a smaAl .va cation in Bushy's pasture. He'll be back, vocilerons as ever, ere long Editor. - I'M - Ed Yocler Thomas Wolfe, Carolina's native son and nove ist, has had his share of critic-trouble. Whenevt domestic Wolfe cultists have despaired at deio.:. tory criticism they have turned and said: Look win a fabulous reputation Wolfe has in Europe.' - Is this true? Generally, it is. European ci it it wKrommvOTij have always looked at tnle . I - " - one of the mammoth, if hot th mammoth figure in America " 'literature. If one reason for th I special admiration could -be bir Jicd out, I suppose it would 1 ' that they see Wolfe as one ( the few American writers wh ' detached himself from Europe:. preoccupation who saw hinm a working in a native litcratur that was to America a, Chaucer's literature was t England. It was young. Wolfe's reputation on the continent of Kurop has been better, however, than it has been in Ore: Britain. Wolfe's first novel, Look Homeward Anga was translated into the Scandanavian language German. French, and Spanish very soon after it w. published in America and England. However, a recent special edition of the Lomln Times literature supplement, crustily entitle! "American Writing Today Its Independence an Vigour," tends to bear out the relative lightness Wolfe's recognition in England at least as see. through the critic's eye. (This supplement, whose fiction section devote many paragraphs to the work of novelists Hemir way, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner, turns a rather col shoulder to Wolfe, together with, of all people. Sir clair Lewis. "There appears to be an increasin conviction," says the Times critic, "that Sinclai Lewis, will not bear serious re-reading and tha Thomas Wolfe's faults are more trying than the: seemed at first." Other than this too brief ap praisal, the special edition gives Wolfe a blank. Later on in the section, though, Wolfe's Lool Homeward is one of those works picked by the c!i tors for a little retrospective criticism. Reviews o novels like The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, Th( Idas of March by Thornton Wilder novels 1hn that have had big opening seasons in Great Brit air appear, along with the original Times comment.' on Look Homeward Angel in the back of the sup plement. The review, unsigned but searching and percep tive, poses many of the pro-con issues that have since risen to importance in connection with Thomas Wolfe's work. (The article, which appeared July 24, 1930, com mented: "Such odysseys of youth are not uncomnvn: :md by this time the crudities of the American seen; are so familiar that the strange, squalid, extrava gant life of the Gant family in the hill town of Altamont . . . will hold no particular surprise: wha? is amazing is the pressure under which this narra tive is shot forth. To use a homely American meta phor, it might be called a 'gusher'; for Mr. Wolfe's words come spouting up 'with all the force of a subterranean flood. "Such native force is rare in England now: a:; i it is impossible to regard this unstinting output of magnificent, raw vigour without a thrill and a ho; -that it will be channeled to great art." To the unknown reviewer the death-scene -f Eugene Gant's brother Ben is most magnificent. "Mr. Wolfe," the evaluation goes on, "rec;! hhnsclf as one who has fed upon honeydew ;,!.-! everything else under the sun. And his most ;,- ; ishing passages, crammed though they are with ti, clangorous echoes of English poetry and pro-e. 1 often falling into sheer meter, come when, in con templation of his past, (Eugene) sends out a cry f lyrical agony for lost beauty." Praising the "Marlowcsque energy and l,rau!" cf Wolfe's poetry, the reviewer poses what to in come one of the great Wolfe issues: "What is going to be done," he asks, "with t V. : -great talent, so hard, so sensitive, so unsentimer-t; '. so easily comprehending and describing everv o.-. didness of the flesh and spirit, so proudly ri-in- the heights? Knowing the times and the ten,;.' -tions of the times, we may well watch its fre.sh cm -gence with anxiety; for if Mr. Wolfe can be wasH-d. there is no hope for today." Probably the most noteworthy qualities of t' -review, seen over the passing of some 24 years. ; the critic's sympathetic recognition that Wolfe -to be viewed largely as a poet. This is one view , : Wolfe to which critics in this country have ha blind, understandably since his work was first po lished in prose format. Much of his writing, ho-, ever, has epic metewand cqntent. I sometime wo: der whether Wolfe, "if he lived, could have beer: persuaded to write an epic poem. If true to form, it could have changed the (-';;;.: of Wolfe criticism. Turning The Tables On 'The New Yorker' (An excerpt from a Neic Yorker profile' of ' president of the National Broadcasting Compiin.; When Weaver goes into high gear in his ei: : to fill himself with information, he presents a J -namic picture of the communicator in domestic Y roundings. With an open book on his lap. and or -magazine by his side, other books and maaziY strewn all around him, a glowing television Ycto in front of him, and a radio going at his elbow. soaks the latest intelligence; his ears attuned toYiv loud speaker, his eyes flitting from book to sett n and from screen to magazine, he simultaneously looks, listens, reads and thinks. Looks, listens, reads and ichat?
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Oct. 21, 1954, edition 1
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