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TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1535 THE DAILY TAR HEEL . - PACE TWO VOTE Chape Sue of tbr Vninniir' r - vhu.h fifi-t - L .-,.. ...:. . J w mm Editors - Managing Editor Echoes Of Prophecy Don't ask us to llouvili any powdered wi-s or silver-buckled shoes (18th Century style) to restore atmosphere, but we feel m succeeding Charlie Kuralt's days on the brid-e muc h as Thomas Jefferson must have felt when he went to Paris to succeed Ben Franklin as ambassador.. - . "Do you come to replace Mr. l rankhn?" the French asked. No, said Jefferson, he could never replace Franklin; he could only succeed him. Likewise we feel small of stature to put on the toa so recently worn by our prede cessor whom Ave look upon as something of a prophet. A prophet must stand a lot of hard knocks horn those wiio listen uay uy clay to his prophecies. For often those pro phecies are percussions which beat against v the established walls of thought and feeling: and those percussions draw repercussions. The chore of the prophet is to keep the percussions he feels to be warranted waving out of his typewriter; and, at the same time, to refuse to bqw before the repercussions that shoot back (often with vengeance). So go the days (tor here and now) of the pro plici and he waits for time to bring appre ciation. The prophecies of the past year's editor, elaborated by a style as fine as any that has vei graced the editorial page of The Daily Tar Heel, were expansive. But actually they sicmmcd from oie or two vital assumptions: That il the flow of student and facidty thought r"bout deep-searing issues ossifies, if the University's venerated goals lose their luster, we will falter and all slide backwards together. What could be more direct or ba sic? Yet, in demanding times, what could be more difficult to guard against than a loss of grip on untrammeled thought, on the quintessential aims of the University? And. speaking of prophecies: As we lean our ears to the wind after the echo of this year's prognostication, allow us one of our own: The world of publication,, of shears and paste and clacking typewriters, of art gum and printers ink, of eloquence and pro phecy, has not heard its last of Charles Ku- Quo Vacis, DTH? Where is The Daily Tar Heel going? As the new management sharpens its edi torial penc ils and picks up a new supply of erasers, this question is put to us. It appears in the words of inquisitive readers and the doubt that sneaks into our own minds this first day. Segregation, the need for emphasizing li beral arts, campus politics, and educational television have been given their editorial due. But now we turn to new things parts of these same issues that haven't been ex plored and countless other grievances, gripes, and campus hangnails. Whatever the issues that The Daily Tar Heel will take up, whatever causes we em. - brace, we promise lair treatment to all sides. While student opinion is represented on these pages in the form of news stories, let ters to the editors, and personal columns, wc do not attempt to reflect in this editorial column any opinions other than those o the editors. This is as it should be. No edi torial can be more than.au expression of the editors' considered opinions. The campus paper has often been at tacked for being what assailants call "too liberal.'' It the critics mean by" this catch phrase that The Daily Far Heel is ahead of student opinion on such issues as racial integration, that we are not bound by tradi tional opinions merely because they are tra ditional, then we accept the charge with a bloated chest. Should this paper ever become a mere printed mirror ot the prevailing tenor of student thought, it avouIcI be duller than a pedantic professor trying to teach an 8 o'clock Saturday class; it would not stimu late or lead. II" - r l . 1 1 . ' w Ti.i i t it ii i oe i.iu i.ai iieei can oc veroailv piod an olten dull campus into thought and ac tion, we will be satisfied. If we can record in these pages the vital events and ideas of student life in an interesting manner, then you will be satisfied.. These are our objec tives. A Very Short Edit The offic.al student publication of the Publi cations Board of the University of North Carolina, , where it is published daily except Sunday, Monday and examina tion and vacation per iods and summer terms. Entered s second class matter at the post office in Chapel Hill, N. C, un der the Act of Ifarch 8, 1879. Subscription rates: mailed, $4 per fear, S2.5C a semester; delivered, $6 a year, $3.50 a semester. k 8 1. Ed Yoder, Louis Kraar FRED POWLEDGE Niyht editor lor this issue Eddie Crutchfield Carolina Front A Last, Word On Elections Almost J. A. C. Dunn FOR THE PAST few weeks we have been hearing a great deal of palaver kicked around about policies. Blotz's "policy" is such and such, and Smashpipe's "poli- cy" is so and so, and Crackle wicket's "policy" is this or that and it all gets very tiresome. We have had policy thrown at us in v such gobs lately that we are be ginning to wonded just what a policy is anyway. We notice that everyone who says he has a policy, or demands that someone else state a policy, seems to assume that once a poli cy is established it will auto matically cover all possible con tingencies that may arise in the course of leading a normal poli tical, editorial or any other kind, og existence. We question this. Unles there is some definite question as to what the organi zation to which one is attaching a policy really is, we don't see how anyone can be expected to formulate a policy when he does n't even know what kind of situa tions his policy will have to cover in the future. We heard what appears to be a very simple solution to this busines the other day from a newspaper editor in South Caro lina. He said that when people came to him and asked "What's our policy on such and so?" his invariable reply was, "Our poli cy is to print the news and keep it clean. Now what's your prob lem?" IT IIAS BECOME apparent that this column should have some thing painfully trenchant to say about the recent political uproar and downblast and whatnot. Act ing on a gentle hint from an out side source, we went and asked a friend of ours just why people went into campus politics. The reasons were interesting. Some people go into politics be cause they enjoy the petty in trigues and behind-the-scenes finagling that go along with par ty government. Others join the throng because they just can't bear to be out of the public eye for more then ten minutes at a stretch. Some few are drawn to politics out a genuine desire to do something good for the stu dents and to maintain decent standards in student government. These are perfectly good rea sons, though we are not sure everyone Avould admit candidly to being motivated by all of them. However, we have not yet heard anyone say that the reason he went into polics was simply be cause he liked it and he thought "he Avas good at it. Perhaps there are some people like this, but unfortunately 'one never hears of them. AND WHILE ON the subject of politics, a subject Avhich no body really seems to have been off for the past few weeks, it is interesting to note that while we have seen six election campaigns on this campus, we cannot re member anyone who included in his platform a plank which was djrcctly connected with educa tion. The closest approach to an educational plank we remember Avas Manntzing's recent proposal that there be established a read ing day between the last day of classes and final exams. And then of course there was also that TV business last year. TV is pretty educational. THE UNIVERSITY OF Cali fornia seems to have been having problems quite similar ours late ly .They have been through a good deal of controversy over tne possibility of a new student union building, and they are woi. ried about parking difficulties. Though they have not settled their student union question, one alumnus of that institution has come up with a suggestion for parking, an underground co-op student parking lot, connected with the student union. Not be ing construction experts, we don't know if this is practicable or not, but from the layman's point of view there does seen? to be a considerable amount of hill underneath the campus for the students to go underground in. Perhaps a whole system of sub terranean roads Avould be good. Just think how nice it Avould be to drive from GM to Cobb without ruining one's white sidewalls in the driving rain. . 'On The Other Hand, V3Z X NOV m. MATTER OF FACT Saigon: Joseph Alsop SAIGON, Indo-China A long, agreeable Chinese dinner; an hour's intricate discussion of the current political crisis in a bright-lit sidewalk cafe; a cool walk homeAvards in the tropic night; and then the sudden dis tant rattle of machine gun fire land the heavy, muffled crump of mortars. Then a long ride in a chance-caught motorcycle rick shaw to the first line of Nation alist tanks, where they say the Binh Xuyen attackers are retreat, ing. A further advance down the BouIeAraird GUiiani over pave ments scattered with mortar frag ments to a crossroads clogged with troops, where there is a snick, snick and young paratroop. er is hoisted into an ambulance with a grim, dark hole in his forehead. After that the battle continu ing for a couple of hours, with sudden sprays of rifle fire, hur ried leaps behind the concrete terraces where the, coolie res taurants put up their tables by day, tanks clattering forAvard, a company moving up under the dimmed street lights, and a cre scendo of fire at the finish. It Avas an odd war, this quickly flaring, quickly ending night fight betAveen the forces of Pre sident Ngo Dinh Diem and the tough Binh Xuyen boss of Sai , gon, Gen. Bai Vien. But it was an important war, becausejamong the rather few casualties, there was one really big one. For practical purposes, the American policy of using Pres ident Diem to save Southern Indo-China from the Communists is now as dead as the poor young paratrooper with a bullet through his brain. FAILURE It hardly matters whether the current frantic efforts to glue to gether a new combination result in President Diem remaining at his post. The Diem experiment has failed, and so much time has been wasted that it is very doubt, ful whether any other experi ment can now succeed. Clear notice of the failure was giA'en by an experience of this reporter, even before the present crisis reached fever heat. The all important problem here in Sou thern Indo-China is to halt and roll back the continuous Com munist infiltration of the coun tryside. The supposed instrument for solving this problem is the "Civic Action" organization hea ded by one of President Diem's confidential staff, Tian Trung Dung. Tran Trung Dung is an amiable young man. His office in the Nor odom Palace, just next to Pres ident Diem's, is full of impressive 'tables of organization showing the chain of command of CiA'ic Action, reaching down from him self, through the provinces and districts, to the vital village level . where the. Communist cadres are He Doesn't Look Very Sleepy' Blood And Darkness at work. But when I asked how many places in these impressiAre tables of organization had actual ly been filled, Tran Trung Dung gave a wry smile and replied Aith mild embarrassment: "Well there is a special Civic Action group in the Camau Plain that we got together as an emer gency measure when the Viet Minh left that area. But for the rest, I'm afraid there have been too many arguments about the budget and differences among ministers. I'm afraid, to be hon est with you, that Civic Action is really just myself, so far." This little episode, which left one wondering Avhether to laugh or cry, is a fair symbol of what has happened to the Diem gov ernment to date. POWER FIGHT The internal struggle for po wer has been continuous and fe rocious. Four months were spent in the fight with the army that ended Avith the dismissal of Gen. Hinh. Then, Avhen restoring army discipline Aras the vital need, President Diem insisted on nam ing a new chief of staff Avhose sole recommendation was ex treme pliability. And finally, Avith the National army still disorgan ized and demoralized, President Diem took on the sect leaders who had been his allies against Hinh. As the case of the unfortunate Tran Trung Dung too clearly sug gests, everything else, all the most urgent administratiA'e, pol itical and welfare Avork of the government, has been subordinat. ed to the unending struggle for power. On all sides in this strug gle, there has been the lack or realism one saw in China, of little men fighting for position in a country Avhich may not be a coun try very much, longer. To this unrealism of President Diem and his rivals, moreover, there has been added much Am erican unrealism. There has been some French sabotage too, to be sure. (The loyal and coopera tive Gen. Ely sacked a general officer on- his staff a couple of months ago for secretly slipping arms to the sect leaders who are now attacking President Diem.) But on the whole American un realism has done more harm than French sabotage. This American unrealism has taken several different forms. For example, conA-entiorial mind ed Americans find it A'ery hard to accustom themselves to poaa' lerful, semi-gangster feudal lea ders with large private armies. So the strength of the Indo-Chinese sects was seriously under rated; and worse still, the sects were dealth with in such fashion that their chieftains are now just about as angry Avith Gen. J. Lawton Collins as with Presi dent Diem himself. . , PpLICY LACK - , Again, -conventional minded Americans . filled, it. very Jiard to believe that any country really, can be utterly lacking in a co herent administrative system. So the word has too often been ta ken for the deed, . as when this reporter was told that great things were hoped from Tratu Trung Dung and his ghostly or ganization tables. Something of this appeared in Gen. Collins' statement in Washington, that there was a good chance of sav ing Southern Indo-China if Pre sident Diem could only put over his program. The EisenhoAAer ad ministration's public relations men cried that estimate from the house tops, as though .this un happy country had been saved al ready. The only trouble was that even then, long before the pres ent crippling crisis, the odds against President Diem putting over his program were some where between five and ten to one. Those same Administration publicist men who twisted Gen. Collins' words, are a large part of the explanation of the lack of American policy in Indo-China have been under constant, heavy pressure from Washington, for something to shoAv, something to boast about, something that Avould distract attention from the fearful dangers that threaten the free world in Asia. The moral of the whole exper ience, perhaps, is that public re lations and foreign policy do not mix well. Balloting Bons Mots Your eAery A'oter, as surely as your chief magistrate; exercises a public trust. Grover Cleve land, Inaugural Address. . A straw vote only shows which, Avay the hot air Woavs. Rol' ling Stone, a Ruler of. Men. k They have such refined and delicate palates That they can discover no one worthy of their ballots, And when someone terrible gets elected , They say, There, that's just what I expected! ' Ogden Nash, Election Day ls, A Holiday , He cast his vote, distrusting all the elected but not. the laAV. Karl Jay Shapiro, Elegy For a Dead Soldier, VII. Slavery is but half abolished, emancipation is but half completed,- Avhile millions of freemen with votes in their hands are left without an education. Robert diaries Wtnthrop, Yorktown Oration. Passing Remark Singing Stops 'Peace' Is Restored Here Ron Levin About a wieek ago, I was seated in front of Kemp's place on a sunny afternoon trying my best to get an early tan under AA-ay. Kemp came out and put a bari tone uke into my hands. He Avant me to tune it up and iron but any. kinks that might be left over from the factory. As I sat there strumming idly, a few friends of mine came up and sat down in the "canvas chairs that were on display. It was after lunch and on . a Saturday afternoon. The routine of classes was over, and it Avas only natural that we started in singing on a group of stock col legiate tunes. We had warmed up pretty good and were about to tackle a second chorus of "DoAvn By The Riverside" when a omin ous shadow fell in our midst. I looked up from a pair of unshin ed black shoes, past dark blue trousers, past a black leather belt and holster into a face of fairly rigid dimensions. He was a cop. "Don't you .think you've had a little too much'to drink?" "No, officer. As a matter of x fact, I haven't had anything to drink. Why? What's the matter?" "Your singing is djsturbing the peace. I can hear it all the way up Franklin Street. You gotta keep it doAVn from noAv on." 'SORRY OFFICER' "I'm sorry, officer, but I Avasn't aware that Ave were disturbing anyone. We'll try to keep it down." 7 His mission accomplished, the policeman strode off, climbed in to the double parked car and soon disappeared from sight in the growing line of traffic. Here it was Saturday after noon. There was no classes going on, nor Avas it likely that anyone was asleep in downtown Chapel iHill ,at this time of day. We had NOT been drinking, nor had the occupants of the nearby stores complained that it Avas too loud. Yet, just as th officer said, we were "disturbing the peace". It w as a -plain as that. It was a bit too plain. Peace has come to be a comfortable Avord for too many people . . . too comfortable. They tend to resent not only the intrusion of singing voices, but also neAV ideas, strange customs and foreign faces. Their peace is merely a state of dull complacence or a lethargy of exis tence to be likened to that of the sloth. Any action or thought that is the least bit contrary or differ, ent from the every day routine is to be fought against and forcibly suppressed so that the "peace" may be maintained at all costs. PEACE If what we were doing was dis turbing the peace, then perhaps the peace NEEDS to be disturbed every once in a Avhile and in a similar manner. Even through such a semmingly minor action as ours, mutual understanding and group happiness can' be and was accomplished. The fact that the one driving force in the hu man mind today is the attainment and possession of some degree of happiness seems to have been for gotten by a few slow minds. To those few whom we annoy ed, if any, I apologize for our ac tions, but to those that regard this an similar occurence as dis turbance of the peace, I say open up your mind on a sunny after noon; let a little ... just a little ... sunlight penetrate to remove the stale atmosphere, and then see just hoAv much more enjoy able life can really be. LEVIN & CONE . . f 'But officer.' &?" T" 1 -' "t - j. wVi .! I Ji -J! v - ,- I ; ': ff- SJ Over The Hill Charles Dunn BEGINNING A new column in a newspaper is iust like being on a television quiz program, You never know how many people will be watching you you can only hope that the quiz master will sort of overlook any slight mistakes you chance to make with the low paying questions, and : you , wnd y'ou will make a big (or even a little) hit with all the people out front. Those who know say the first question is usually the hardest to answer, and. likewise the first col umn is usually the hardest to write, unless .later you find something to criticize. There are so many things to write about, but few, if any, are worthy to read about, at least for the average 'busy col lege student. But the job must be done. The smaller the dose the better. TARNATION: When Tarnation arrived last AA-eek everybody dropped whatever he or she was doing to read the latest and to wonder what the adminis tration would have to say about the whole thing this time. Thev found it up to par, and in places a little above. Some of the jokes were a Avee bit old, and some had to be read aloud to be caught. Then there Avere others A'ery original, very modern, and very appropriate, to say the least. The jokes and cartoons had one freshman out of stitches. He had a split lip, with three stitches holding it together. He read one of the jokes, thougiif ' about it a few minutes, and before he could catch and control himself, he had pulled one of the stitches. COED: The dean of women Avas recently con cerned, and rightly so, about what her giirls could do when they arrived in Chapel Hill on a bus late at night, after the station and taxi stand had clcxsed. According fo town officials, if needed the local po lice department will answer any calls from the bus station at any hour of the night. There is a telephone booth on the loading platform and the lights are left on all night. The matter is being looked into further by town officials. POLITICS: The politicking is over, and after to day's run-off, will soon be forgotten. It seems fun ny how election day is always set just so it will fall on or around the time so many professors have scheduled quizzes, or vice versa. Most eA-erybody trying to study, and the rest campaigning. Last Aveek this sort of thing went on until, sev eral of those who were really studying started push ing the propaganda back into the hall as fast as it was pushed under the door. One or tAvo got so perturbed that they put up signs saying that their votes would go to the candidates Avho disturbed them least. It really must have been bad on some of the independents. One of them got caught in the middle of the U. P. and S. P. candidate for the same office. He ended up disturbing both candidates' propagan da at the same time. EASTER: With everybody going home tomorrow something should be said about the Easter holidays. No doubt ! the AArise thing to do Avould be to tell all to be careful and drive safely, get plenty of rest, and don't spend too much time studying. But know ing how this AArould be receiAed, it's best to say simply "haA'e fun, and do come back." About The Writers J. R. C. Dunn, a junior from Charleston, South Carolina, a student of English, has consented t; move dOAA'n the hall from the Carolina Quarterly office where he has edited the literary magazine for the past year and become- a daily columnist for us. Dunn has already crashed one of the mo.-t hallowed of slick-Ariting markets and if you Avant proof check his "Caroline's Men" in last week's Sa turday Evening Post. Charles Dunn, a junior from Ahoskie, will do a chatty column of notes from here and yon about the campus. He's a history major, and his journalistic experience is abundant Avith papers in his home town and with Louis Graves' Chapel Hill Weekly. Kou Levin, a senior from Williamston and, like J. A. C. Dunn, an English major is an old hand at Daily Tar Heel column writing, as many will remem ber. His "Rebellion" a first book of poetry- Avas issued recently by the Old Well Publishers of Cha pel Hill. We are glad to have his "Passing Remark" back Avith us. Tlie Editors Quote, Unquote A best seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent. Logan Pearsall Smith. Our true nationality is mankind. II. G. Wells. I would sooner read a timetable or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertain ing than half the novels that are Aritten. Wi'Hara JSomerset Maugham. Politics has gotten so expensive it takes lots ut money, to even get beat with. Will Rogers.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 5, 1955, edition 1
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