Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 20, 1955, edition 1 / Page 2
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20. 19SS THE DAILY TAR HEEL PAGE TWO $7,300 Tragedy Of The Waste-Money ers Student government is hiring an executive secretary next year for $1,300 to keep its rec ords, handle correspondence, and help solve "the problem of continuity of its ideas and projects from one year to another." The Daily Tar Heel thinks this is a waste of student money. If student government has a primary func tion (and we think it does), that function is training students. The whole range of cam pus government from political party intri gue to the solemn dignity of the honor courts is an educational workshop. - When St, 300.; of student money is paid 'to a professional secretary to keep records that students have failed to keep, write letters'' that students are elected to write, and pass on ideas to rising leaders, then student govern ment ceases to be educational and tends to he professional. Student leaders the ones who think it's worth S1.25 an hour for several hours a day to have an executive secretary contend that ''the frequency of change of office has made student government archives almost an im possibility, resulting in complete absence of records of much legislation and no correct copy of the student government constitu tion." This outright admission of failure to pro mote continuity, to teach and preserve the progress of each year, should call for harder work on the part -of campus leaders not ex penditures of more money. Why didn't the candidates for President point this shortcom ing out and promise to do something about it? Why So Technical? Sponsors of this move for more bureau cracy also point to the fact ,that "there is much student government correspondence and other business that is not being carried on because of lack of technical assistance." Some student government leaders go so far as to declare that they are so bogged down in "routine" that they have no time to for mulate policy. Yet in student offices such as the Inter Dormitory Council and the Publications Board, we find that the aid of active coeds gets the work done and-allows more students to participate in their government. The wheels, or leaders, still have time for policy making in these - offices even without the expensive services of a professional secretary. What Is The Motive? Behind this expensive move for an execu tive secretary, we see signs of student poli ticians" whose fertile imaginations have out run their sense of responsibility. Sure, an executive secretary can (and will) keep records and write letters more efficient ly and in a more professional manner than students can do the jobs. The creation of this post will also assure student government of having accurate records of what has been done. But is this not like signing up for a chemis try course, then paying a professional chemist to attend your labs? "What will the student government people do with the services of a high-powered pro fessional? We suspect campus politicians will have more time to politic-, to play the game of oOV ernment without doing any work. Unfortunately, 'the student Legislature has already approved the appropriation for an executive secretary. However, there is noth ing to keep them from changing their legis lative minds and not throwing aAvav student money. ' The Daily Tar Heel urges student govern ment to reconsider, to stop and think for 1.300 worth of student money. If not we """'l-"t p"i kcis out the bureai aim that would be a waste. Carolina Front Til Do All The Foolish Talking Around Here' Passing. Remark 1 uicratic window. The official student publication of the Publi cations Board of the University of North CzroUnl, where it is published 'jsvneip iK (torn it How To Be Put On Probation: Be 'Doubtful J. A. C. Dunn - THE SUBJECT OF an editorial in the April 12 issue of The Michigan Daily was not exactly, new: "Censor- J 7 daily except Mondav and examination .and vacation periods and summer terms. Enter ed as second class matter at the post of fice in Chapel Hill, N. C, under the Act of March 8, 1879. Sub scription rates: mail ed, $4 per year, $2.50 a semester; delivered, $6 a year, $3.50 a semester. Editors ED YODER, LOUIS KRAAR Managing Editor Business Manager Sports Editor Associate Editor News Editor J. A. C. DUNN Advertising Manager . Circulation Manager Subscription Manager Assistant Business Manager Assistant Sports : Editor Photographer ship 0f College N e w s p apers: Who Should Decide?" The first paragraph sounded like I something w e had heard be , " fore. "At Cor ki nell University, FRED POWLEDGE TOM SHORES BERNIE WEISS Jackie Goodman Dick Sirkin Jim Kfley, Jack Godley Bill Bob Peel Ray Linker Beyden Henley Ni"hf editor lor this issue .Eddie Crutchfield three editors of the college hum or magazine were officially rep rimanded by the Faculty Com mittee on Student Conduct be cause one issue contained an ar ticle lampooning sororities. Ia the midwest, five editors of the Illinois Technology News reeeivV ed disciplinary probation ... by a faculty committee ... were charged with publishing a car toon and an article . . the com mittee considered doubtful." But then further on, lo and behold: "Student legislators at the Uni versity of North Carolina charg ed that the Daily Tar Heel is a 'second Daily Worker' managed by 'lazy' editors. Irate legislators accused the editor of imposing his liberal views on the students and giving 'poor coverage' to student activities. To further jus tify their complaints, the legis lature appointed a committee to investigate 'the circulation and quality problems' of the paper." And still further on, Michi gan's opinion of student investi gating committees: ". . an in vestigating committee operating under the charge that the paper is 'a. second Daily Worker' isn't the answer to the problem, eith er. Unless a publication is radi cally at odds with student opin ion, such a committee will only stifle the paper instead of help ing it," Thus the long arm of the printed word. BUT MICHIGAN DID not stop there. They also passed judge ment on censorship in general with these words: "The legislators represent the students; the faculty represents the school. Each has the conern of a different group in mind. Who, then has the exclusive right to censure? Neither." A good point. ALL THIS BRINGS to mind a matter that occurred to us way back when "Coraddi" was busy teaching the world the Bohemi an facts of life. We would like very much to put a censorship board in such a would like very much to put a censorship board in such a position that it has. to define such vague terms as "doubtful" (the verdict handed down at Illinois), "poor taste" (the dict um from Cornell), and "second Daily Worker" (the papal bull proclaimed by the Student Leg islature at this University). We have not yet heard of a college censorship board that had to prove its case; we have not yet run across a single group of red pencil swingers who had to get up in public and describe just exactly how, according to the letter of the law, they were justified in suppressing a Free dom. We have always been under the impression that college was a place where one learned things, not only by doing them wrong, but by being taught how to do them right in the first place. In view of these recent outbreaks of censorship, we wonder it it would not be a good idea, since college censorship boards seem to feel so strongly about the matter, if the fcen sors made up their minds be forehand just what it was they did not want to see in a student publication, instead of making up the rules as they go along. The act of censure can be in terpreted as being a form of diplomacy 'a balance of un derstanding between the reader, the editor and the censor. Bat we have heard that there . are two kinds of diplomacy: ama teur and professional. The pro fessional diplomats are not ang ry or offended; they want only to arrive at a compromise which has some chance of lasting. The amateur diplomats are mad; they want to punish the other side. Censorship after the act sounds like amateur diplomacy. if I I TEPARTmEf4r( ZT Vf I OF PEFFNSE fj M ft w . '"t''m- ' I A GREAT HISTORIAN'S THOUGHTS: An Humble Valley And Two Mountains Arnold J. Toynbee In 'A Study Of History' (Note: We are indebted to Graham Shanks, student histor ian and peruser of Toynbee, for calling o-ur attention to this timely comparison betceen the home stomping grontnd and our neighbors to the North and South. Mr. Toynbete could well have spiced his comparison with that old favorite in Tar Heel cir cles, 'that timeless quotation, "North Carolina is a valley of humility between, two mountains of conceit." Mr. Toynbee shoios and it can well be taken to the hearts of all tiiree states that idolization of the "once glorious past" is dangerous, paralyzing, and finally completely petrefy ing.) If we extend our survey from the Old World, to the New, we shall find a pjarallel illustration of the nemesfe of creativity in the history of the United States. If we make a comparative study of the post-wrar histories of the several States 'of "The Old South" which were naembers of the Con federacy in , the Civil War of 1861-5 and were involved in the Confederacy'.- defeat, we shall notice a mrtrked difference be tween themf in the extent to which they Rave since recovered from that common disaster; and we shall notice that this differ ence is the I exact inverse of an equally wejll-marked difference which had distinguished the same States' in the period before the Civil 'ar. A forei.gn observer who visit ed the Ofed South in the fifth decade ofTthe twentieth century would assuredly pick out Vir ginia and' South Carolina as the two States in which there was least sigiri or promise of recov ery; and. he would be astonished to find jthe effects of even so great a.' social catastrophe as . theirs ersisting so starkly over such a j long period. In thes States tlie memory of that catas trophe is as green in our genera tion as if the blow had fallen only yesterday; and "the War" still mifens the Civil War on many Virgirtian and South Carolinian lips, though two fearful wars have fsince. supervened. In fact, twentieth . century Virginia or Soutlj' Carolina makes the pain ful iirnpression of a country liv ing tinder a spell, in which time has 'stood still. This impression will I be heightened through con trast to the State which lies be tween them. In North Carolina the J visitor will find up-to-date industries, mushroom universit ies,' and a breath of the hustling, "boosting" spirit which he has learnt " to associate with the "Yankees" of the North. He will also find that North Carolina has produced some of the great men of the twentieth century, such as Woodrow Wi'son (sic) and Wal ter Page. What explains the springlike burgeoning of life in North Car olina while the life of her neigh bors droops in ah apparently un ending "winter": of their "dis content"? If we turn for enlight enment to the past, we shall find our perplexity momentarily in creased when we observe that, right up to the Civil Wrar, North Carolina had been socially barren while Virginia and South Caro lina had enjoyed spells of excep tional vitality. During the first forty years of the history of the American Union Virginia had" been beyond comparison the leading State, producing four of the first five Presidents and also John Marshall, who, more than any other single man, adopted the ambiguities of the "scrap of paper" composed by the Phila delphia Convention, to the re alities of American life. And if, after 1825. Virginia fell, behind, South Carolina, under the lead ership of Calhoun, steered the Southern States into the course on which they suffered ship wreck in the Civil War. During all this time North Carolina was seldom heaid of. She had a poor soil and no ports. Her impov erished small farmers, mostly descended from squatter immi grants who had failed to make good in either Virginia or South Carolina, were not to be com pared with the Virginian squires Quote, Unquote ... The Adminisiratioh's Dead TuVia What is the difference between "progressive moderation" and "moderate progressivism" or be tween; "dynamic conservatism" and "conservative dynamism?" Either way, they just sort of sit there and don't go anyplace. The fact that they sitv there, fixed, imperturbable, does however, give you a chance to work around them, squint at them through one eye at a time and measure them like a fish that didn't get away. I don't mean like a dead mack eral that both shines and stinks in the moonlight, but like a dead tuna, say, that is neatly mounted, its mouth closed in a satisfied expression, the whole thing cov ered with a careful coat of shel lac. Eric Sevareid Ort CBS Radio Clothes Make A Regimented College Army Ron Levin t Clothes make "the man. If .you "want proof of this, you can mere 1y ask anyone I I vho works in a ' 1 of the South Carolinian cotton planters. The earlier failure of North Carolina in comparison with her neighbors on either side is easily explained; but what of their sub sequent failure and her subse quent success? The explanation is that North Carolina, like Pied mont, has not been inhibited by the idolization of a once glorious past; she lost comparatively little by defeat in the Civil War be cause she had comparatively little to lose; and, having had less far to fall, she had that much less difficulty in recover ing from the shock. Readers Retort Have We Had it? Editon: It's a great relief to see tnat Governor Hodges and Mayor Cornwell are "Johnnies on the spot" and have joined in pro claiming April as "Go to the Movies" month. It would have been a serious blow to the1' wel fare of the state and the com munity if they had failed to seize this significant opportuni ty afforded by the high oTfices they hold. This action should go a long way toward solving the many serious problems besetting North Carolina and Chapel Hill. Since the motion picture indus try is surely in no way motiv ated by anything like self in terest, it is entirely proper for government to lend its official blessing to this great philan thropic enterprise which is do ing so much for our, society. And we also -owe a debt of gratitude to the banks for re minding us of the official sign ificance of this month when they mailed out our monthly statements. What a treat is in store for us! By buckling down to "our duty" with perhaps ah occasional ; trip to Durham and conscientious attendance, at ail late "shows I figure each of us can see maybe 45 to 50 movr ies in this crucial month of 1955. A thousand years 6r so from now, when anthropologists un cover one of these impressive proclamations by bur honorable governor and mayor, they will have no trouble in discerning the values held most dear in - the United States culture of the mid-twentieth century. For when government lends its of ficial blessing to something like the movies, brother, we've had it! Gordon W. Blackwli lothing store, ashion shop or ne of the bet er dressed ex ecutives wind ng his impec cable way on Wall Street. Now, I grant ou tueie is Homing wrong wun clothing. In fact, I, for one, am of the opinion that clothes are " here to stay. Their functions have 'become quite indispensable to modern man in many ways. They facilitate his powers of adapt ability to . all sorts of environ mental conditions whether in the steaming jungle or at the frigid poles. THE COVERING UP PROCESS A more sensitive point is the "covering up" process in "which clothes are involved. To avoid embarassment, we wear clothes to cover certain body parts which, if uncovered, would produce no end of eye shutting, face hiding and all degrees of blushing in ' the populace. This is all obvious to you, and you make use of them every day whether you are aware of them or not. However, we finally reach the gremlin in the pile, though a well dressed one at that. Fashion has come to be the master, and man . . . the slave. The dictates are handed down by popular magazines, and we strive to obey so that we may be accepted by our peers and betters. Narrow shoulders come and narrow shoulders go. If some, one had presented a typical Brook's Brothers coat on this campus in 1945, he would have been tarred and feathered and then possibly run out of town on a rail. Certainly, change is the one pleasant property of life a bove all else. We can look for ward to something different and sometimes new to come upon the scene. This is all very well and good. We buy new outfits and send the old ones to people who are starving and ill-clothed in countries less fortunate than ours. But when fashion comes to be a criterion of social acceptance and recognition, then it is time for a change . . . and not one of clothes either. I can remem ber five years ago when I was in a fraternityr and we would stand out front waiting for the prospective pledges to come up and offer a rather shaky hand. We were told the first thing to look at was the way the rushee dressed. Was he in style? Did he conform with the present set of standards as set down in Es quire? If he did, more than likely he was given a glad hand and even tually pledged up. Those unfor tunate few who came in wide shoulder, narrow hip, two button coats were shown to a quiet re cess in the library where they could concern themselves with literary interests. This sounds ridiculous, and I agree ... it is. But nonetheless, it is true, and it happened, and it still happens, and it will go on happening, as long as men attach value to the more insignificant and trivial things in life. REGIMENTATION BY FASHION I do not advocate everyone dis carding their present attires and throwing them into a mass bon fire and then donning Bikinis and skin tights, but look around some time and watch all the cord suits, round collars, thin ties, cordovan shoes, charcoal trousers V . . why, it's almost like a col legiate army. Regimentation by fashion. However, unless you want peo ple to stare at you and suppress a giggle, then my advice is to keep on wearing the same old things and read Esquire every month. That way you simply can't go wrong . . . Dr. Albert Einstein TeZ-rin1 Sffl W0; To myself I seem to have been only like a boy play n on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the. great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Dr Albert Einstein, who has searched that "great ocean of truth" for an intensive 76 years died this 'week and left his search for truth-like all searches for truth ever undertaken by man unfulfilled He had the same humility Newton expressed .above, th humility which increases in direct pace with the amount of knowledge and truth a man obtains for himself Newton's significance when he died lay uncommunicated to the vast lot of his fellow men; but now those lines of communication have short ened and the importance of Dr. Einstein's, work is known in greater amount to a greater number of men. . Newton's towering successor had not by a long shot finished the work he cut out for himself. He stood before, but not through, one of the two gate ways which scientists say lie open to man m his quest to find physical reality. He was immersed in, work on his Unified Field Theory, a framework of physical mathematics fully understood, perhaps, only to himself. Lincoln Barnett, in The Universe and Dr. Ein stein, tries to put in layman's terms the meamng of Dr. Einstein's latest work a work which has con tinued for a quarter-century now: j; THE OUTER LIMITS "Today the outer limits of man's knowledge are defined by Relativity, the inner limits by the Quan tum Theory. Relativity has shaped all our concepts of space, time, gravitation, and the realities that are too remote and too vast to be perceived. The Quantum Theory has shaped all our concepts of the atoms, the basic units of matter and energy, and the realities that are too elusive and too small to be perceived. Yet these two great scientific sys tems rest on entirely different and unrelated the oretical foundations. They do not, as it were, speak the same language. The purpose of the Unified Field Theory is to construct a bridge between them. Believing in the harmony and uniformity of-nature, Einstein has evolved a single edifice of physical laws to encompass both the phenomena of the atom and the phenomena of outer space." - No' pencil or spinning typewriter ribbon measure the impact of Dr. Einstein's work in physics. For tunately, as always, we can measure the basic worth of the man himself in more definite and finite terms. AN INCALCULABLE EGGHEAD Dr. Einstein has done as, much as any scientist in recent history to scare away the silly shadows who plagued scientists and scholars with loyalty oaths, censorship, threat of this and that suspen sion, and the often scornful label, "egghead." Dr. Einstein was an egghead, such a loftey and incal culable egghead that even the crassest controllers of thought trembled in their boots when he con fronted them. In the flash and spit of the Fifth Amendment Communist battle, Dr. Einstein said one day from his Princeton study that any intellectual who was bothered by Red-hunters ought to use thei Fifth Amendment. He understood the use of the Fifth Amendment as a device of defiance, as an, act of oft-justified resentment against the current -barking and growling at intellectuals. And when he spoke, so austere was his reputation that even the bitterest contradictions became chirps. So went his speech and action on one of the liveliest issues of his latter days; and they are only part measure of his personal courage. One is, finally, impressed by the. awful lag be tween what a great human being and scientist can discover of the universe and what his less colossal fellows can do with it. Of this man who gave the Twentieth Century a new cosmologv, most newspa pers could only think to say, in the headline over his obituary, "TV and A-Bomb Father Dies " EY Science No Escalator In the three centuries preceding the Twentieth, science tended to dull man's sense of responsibility. On the one hand, its deterministic assumptions made man wonder whether he cod do anything about his lot; on the other, its material gains gave rise to an idea of progress which made man won der if he needed to do anything beyond the auto matic to insure his well-being. Twentieth-century science has removed both these rationalizations for indifference and complacency. Without provin freedom, it has as noted, at least dampened eighth eenth and nineteenth century arguments against it Meanwhile, by increasing man's destructive capac ties it has shown unmistakably that what science provides is not an escalator which will carry man automatically to utopia, but an elevator wlJch can carry him either up or down. What does responsibility mean for the scientists' thT Zfe- fv Se6med near 3nd vWid as the participants listened to Arthur Compton. and Werner Heisenberg, who a decade Jereom. petitors in the life-and-death race for the atomic bomb, now seated in the same room sharing their experiences as they face together this cmon problem. Without disclaiming responsibility ft the tragic ends to which their discoveries mi-M'te d reeled, the scientists maintained thai t f,r s't responsibility was to follow thg jj (the-) is twof Id: as scientist the way of truth as possible, and as cit?Zen to see that society turns the findings of science o beneficent ends: From the proceed swns of the Washington University Conference on Science and Human Responsibility on
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 20, 1955, edition 1
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