Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Dec. 14, 1955, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE TWO fi r I S i The Presidential Bull: Unam Segregation President Don Fowler, in a recent presi dential hull, lias encouraged the student Legislature to pace closer to the move it should have made almost two years co on. the Supreme Court's desegregation deci sion. '"If the student legislature feels it should express itself on this question, .then it should do so," was Fowler's word. Now we may run at least abreast of. our sister students at Woman's College, vhofc legislature acted belatedly on the issue two weeks ago. The student legislators there voted with the Supreme Court. The student legislature ?.t .Chapel Hill has made only one stab at a vote on the .question just before school ended last .spring and. that one stab ended in fiasco. Just as the now immortal ocl Fieishmann mounted the ros trum to introduc e his resolution backing" the Supreme. Court, lloorleaders of both parties led a walkout 'big enough to remove the quo rum under the incredible rationale that the session had gone on too long. President Fowler, whose pleasure or thun der is really irrelevant to what the Legisla ture does, added with his approval of debate mi the segregation question: "I can see no further r Ivamage to be gained by cither i hove in fax or of or opposed to de-segregation if the student Legislature decides to de bate the met its of w hat the Supreme Court has rukd to be the law of the land." Under one intci pre tation that the law of the land is the law of the land regardless of what any Mudcnt legislature thinks of it Fowler is right. Kut under another interpretation, more important, we think, in this instance. Fowler has undermined in one sentence a: nuclear purpose of .undent legislatures: To face the iviiies, the-more important the better, and to debate them. Perhaps as vital' as the sub stance of any opinion on de-segregation is the reason, logic, and cool understanding by which it may be determined. Surely Presi dent Fowler is not suggesting that mutual understanding-will not be enhanced by de late. Add one more comment on President Fow ler's multi-faceted spate of opinion: For r.t least the second time, he has laid it down that students should accept the decisions of Gov ernor Hodges, th? North Carolina Legisla ture and .other "state leaders" on the segrega tion issue Respect may be in order, if those decision befit enlightened and reasonable minds. Put studen s will have learned little here, from books or experience, if they think acceptanc e i.e.: blind kowtowing is in or--der at every mv ;nscienable dictum of the holy voices of ai: loritv. SecirrHv's Puzzle. ; ; "The ival difficulty is with the (security) s tern itself, or with1 the philosophy behind the svstem. The time has come to contem plate not particular reforms, but whether the svstem is susceptible to reform." That is the way historian Henry Steele Commager viewed the V. S. government's sccuritv system in a recent Reporter maga zine article: his view represents the alarming, b it not lonely outlook of many wise men ol the day. For that reason, when a State Department recruiter appeared in a Chapel Hill class vcxmi to promote the Foreign Service, we asked about the so-called security system. What constitutes a so-called security risk? The answei, from recruiter John R. Gar tutt: "Well, we don't handle that directly ourselves. Iff done by security officers, ac cording to executive orders by the Presi dent." I he Daily 'Far Heel found the answer unsatisfactory, and, we suspect, so do stu dents considering government employment. I lie standards lor so-called security are hazy, to hav lr many to iisk their future posi tion on. And this, we believe, accounts for th:' eke line in government job-hunters among manv c -able college graduates. Historian Commager, in simple terms, pointed to the faults of the system: it violates nittiH'-.ous traditions of American justice, sir h as presumption' of innocence until proof of guilt, the doctrine that guilt is personal and cannot be louneKni the basis of associa- tions. and provision to "the accused of ele mentary due process lights. In a letter that just crossed our desk, the Slate Department's Chapel Hill visitor ex pusscs puzzlement over our previous coin, incurs on the secuiity program. - W: au- puzzled, also, when this countrv begins to ask for proofs of loyaltv, rather thin assuming loyalty until' e idenoe of dis loyal ty is revealed. The official student publication of the PuhH ations Board of the University of North Carolina. v where it n..ki:.L. j !' - . f daily except Monday """., and examination and J vacation norin!. s . f U summer terms. FntAr. ea as second class ) matter in the post of fice in Chapel Hill, N. c under the Act of j March S, 1879. Sub- .scription rates: mail j ed, $4 per year, $2.J0 j ucurerra, 3 year, $s.J0 a it " mester. - - A Refused. . To Hit Ideals Ovar The KaacI Ralph McGill Among the experiences impos sible to forget is one dating 1933. The place Havana, Cuba. The time late July, just before the August revolution exploded to blow a wicked and murderous man, . Gerarde Machado, out of his long-held position as dictator of Cuba. ; J Many men and women, young and old, had given their lives in " opposing him. Others had suffer ed prison and toilure. Still others " had undergone a boycott and lost , jobs and busincs. ': Of them all none had suffered more than the. students and fac ulty of the University of Havana . . . most of whom had stood against his ruthless, ' cunning tjranny. He had long before clcs-' cd , the University. Across a span of several days and nights I saw and : talked with these people. I recall stu dents whose backs were scarred from beatings given them in pris- -on. Others had mutilated faces. There were those with scars where bullets or clubs had dug deep. Bodies of others had been fished from the harbor, having been dropped there from the pris on quarters in old Morro castle. They didn't quite. And.vfinally, they; were there when the old butcher fled ... IDEALISM Since then I have never con demned students, op young people anywhere who protested for the sake of an ideal. One only too rarely encounters idealism in its most uncompromised form. Stu dents may, and on occasion do, commit themselves to what seems, folly. But, in the main they are pretty fine. , A young person's idealism is the best because he or she has not yet met the forces which demand, and obtain, conformity, compro mise and withdrawal from contro versy. A student's idealism and faith still are much closer to the heart of a child, of which, so we are told, is the stuff of the King dom itself. That is one reason they make ! go;d s.) Idlers in a good' cause. That is why they are always ex pressing themselves against what seems, to them to be tyranny The Communists have been shrewd enough to try and cap ture and use that force.. In China and in Asian countries long un der colonial rule, the. Commu nists have offered Marxism to the young people as the way to free dom from foreign mle. Yet, in all the bloody anli -Communist riots there have been students in opposition. Communism has by no means won them all. Even Hitler, who lavished uni forms and flattery on German youth, did not Win them all fcut he prostituted the idealism of many. CONFORM In our country the usual cus tom is to hit- youthful idealism over the head whenever it ex presses itself in any saVe the orthodox and approved channels. Men and women whose ideals have long ago withered down to the roots, or which suffer badly from blight, find it easy io criti cize "the modern generation" for "excesses." But vyhen adults are silent and afraid, and a principle '-' is anywhere at stake, how else may the student express himself save by a demonstration?. The . cry goes up, "Conform, conform." There arc demands that examples be made. Idealism is battered over the head, put in to p3trol wagons, and locked up in jails. But, happily, it keeps re peating itself in youth. If now and then it expresses itself in so-called panty-raids, in which giggling young maids in college dormitories toss "souve nirs" out the window it perhaps is folly but it hardly comes un der the classification of sewing a wild oat which used to be ex pected of the well-brought-up boy. When the guns begin to shoot they'll be there. And whenever dictatorship or tyranny takes over there will al ways be those to work in the uh- derground, to make the borabs,v to sabotage, to die for the prin ciple of freedom. I go along with the old prophet of Ecclesiastes: "Rejoice. 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart." Someone else will have to view with alarm and hod up the re- " buying finger. n r Dr. Andrew H. Horn University Librarian (The Daily Tar Heel takes pleasure in printing here a con densaticn of D.. Atulrew H. H&rn's humanities lecture, de livered here last iceek. Editors.) In an hour's time of wander ing in the stacks of the Library one could, assemble a shelf or two of books published within the past fifteen years, dealing with the humanities in American higher education. Within that same hour one could also be plucking out another shelf-full of reccnf books and articles about research libraries. Examined, this library of the newest books on two old subjects will be found to contain a good deal of thought upon the prospects pf both. In these books three words occur qver and over again: problems, conferences and reports. The word "problems" suggests that on the matters being considered we have not found satisfactory solutions. Indeed, when the prob lems are especially baffling, we sometimes call them "challenges" and postpone them indefinitely. The word "conferences, " and the fact that there have been so many conferences, suggest that we are uncertain about these matters, untried, that we want to meet in groups for mutual com fort and consolation. jThe word "reports" or "studies," if not much of anything can be dis covered suggests that we can, if we wish, make a career in writing about our problems. I am led to the opinion that the humanists of the university and the university 'librarians are at the present time in a certain amount of trouble We probably should have a conference to dis cuss ourproblems and then write a report. What I, a university librarian, wish to do is tell you, the university humanists, about some ; of my. troubles. Conceiva bly, we may together discover in the university, library an instru ment of much greater utility than . any of' us .has appreciated. PROBLEM OF FINANCE The problem faced by univer- say Jioranes in 19o5 is one of finance. Everyone knows that university j libraries are expen sive; and it is equally obvious that the major items of library expenditure are for books (and journals), services (i.e., salaries) and buildings (including equip ment). Although maintenance 9 -f4- is. ic n in mV'y J-YV-? !t'' -1 : ?S TT x -vr I Ii III W i-f- s THE DAILY TAR HEEL n n 5 i Sl . costs, such as binding and sup plies, are alsohigh, they are after all only' subsidiary. It is evident that this financial prob lem of university libraries is di rectly related to their size. Sud denly,, as we have come into the second half of the tvventieth'cen tury university administrators and other budget authorities seem to have rediscovered what they have known very well all of the time, namely, that big libra ries cost much money whereas small libraries are not so ex pensive. . When he writes his annua? re port, the university president re gards the growth of his library, between 1925 and 1955 with a great deal of pride, as an. ini-, portant phenomenon; but when he prepares his budget, the uni-. versity president looks rather sourly at the corresponding growth of library costs' and at the necessity for new, and expensive library buildings. Talking among themselves, librarians have also been worrying about the rising costs due to continuous growth. As a matter J of fact, the libra rians 1 had begun to work out some pretty good solutions to ward reducing costs and curtail- x ing, or at least directing,-growth. It occurred to me that the dilem ma of university librarianship is not unlike the one in which the faculties of the humanities find themselves. Oh all sides we hear that the humanities have failed, are on the way out, cost too much money for what they do, have no practicality. On all sides we hear that libraries --are fail ing to do their job, cost too much money, are too , crowded with esoteric material rather than the up-to-the-minute practical re cord of the day. Yet all of these charges have a curious anonymi ty.' ; : ; . : I have yet to. see a, president or a dean or i ' faculty menrber outside of the. humanities (i.e.-, of the professions, natural "sci ences or social sciences )tand up to be-counted in public as , opposed to either the htihfani-:,i ties or the libraries. I have be- gun to suspect that most "of the; prophets of despair are in our own ranks. We are being aroused when we hear others ' merely quote what we "have said of our selves. There seems to be some, vidence that our rivals in the. - competition for budget funds, are really not dead-set against us; they even seem to be saying that 'Oh, No!' i II ICS V -.-.tVff f 1 1 .'Zt&ZA I II n 'AY r r1 L V I i y they feel a need for our help, our contribution, our cooperation with them vin their own endeav ors; ' -; POST-WAR ERA ,In a post-war era preoccupied with exciting 'prospects of sci cntil'io . discovery, technological advance, professional expansion, and attendant grave social pro blems, the traits of the human ist can . be misunderstood; hu manity in this strange new world suggests only homo sapiens or the conglomerate of the. animal rather than, mart with a balance of r- intelfigence, taste and spirit. The university library is one of the great strongholds of the humanistic .tradition. In it, .the men of the two sciences, natural and social, as well as the men of the professions and "of the technologies meet the faculties of the humanities. . All thinking free-men thirst for the Values of mankind's spiritual," intellec tual and aesthetic achievement; and; all, persons, sense that the strength of the . single man, his dignity, his defiance, his trouble some individualism, his intellect are the things' Which have made our miraculous progress possible. Library history In recent years considerable attention has been given to the history of American university librarianship. Access by students to the libraries was shockingly liberal by English university li brary standards of the time; but at Harvard in 1765, for example, the librarian lent and received books on Fridays for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. He waited on the faculty whenever there was need; and on Wednesday he attended on. such students as. had special permission to study in the li brary. . The origins of the University of North Carolina, from 1776. to 1799, and the opening of the Uni versity, in 1795. were symbols of ; ;the .times Although r influenced by the- earlier academic tradi tion the, iVniyersity of North Car olina and ; the " other nineteenth century American . universities 5 'still typified- 'the - changed . out look in which, man became the measure much as had been true fn the Renaissance. Here in "Chapel Hill we had as president a "Presiding Pro fessor" who was the "Professor of Humanity." I have looked rather carefully into the" early records of our university library p. w 7: ii . - two sonu ie pIo-ii- that frnm tne Desinmnu iJ WiVM North Carolina's state university developed library resources in, the humanities, with a strong concurrent interest in the natural sciences. : By 1349 all classes, even fresh men, were allowed to use their college and university libraries except at Columbia and Yale. At Yale, sophomores; were also ex cluded. True, the libraries still maintained short hours. On the Chapel Hill campus in 1843 our library was open only five times a week, for a total of five hours per week. RISE CF LIBRARIANSHIP Librarianship emerged gradu ally as a recognized occupation, if not a profession. The college and university librarians began to associate with their public li brary colleagues. In 1853 a na tional meeting of librarians was held in New York, attended by librarians of both academic and public or society libraries. That quarter century between 1850 and 1875, which contained the Civil War, witnessed' changes and unrest in universities, libra ries, and in scholarship. Student complaint about the inadequacy of library, service mounted; at tempts to improve library hous ing or to increase staffing in uni versity libraries did not succeed. HUMANIST SCIENCE Will "humanistic science" take the place of the humanities in the field of general prepara tory studies which is now di vided with the social sciences and natural sciences? I do not believe that , the professions and the social and natural sciences what this to happen any more than do the humanists. If this kind of research in the humani ties is needed, possibly the li brarians can do it for you, and leave you free to study the "pro duction of ideas' a field which", I am sure, is not yet exhausted. What the humanist has lacked has been a device to communi cate with the citizens beyond the campus, to catch popular imagination and support, and to interpret directly the values of humanism. Humanists in their research and in their teaching are book - centered, excepting perhaps the fine arts, whereas the other disciplines of the uni versity ar only book-dependent. All teaching and research de pends upon the use of books and periodicals; but most depart ments of the humanities rely wholly upon books, journals, pamphlets, manuscripts with out the additional facilities of laboratories, statistical analysis, or testing of conclusions under controlled conditions. The hu manist remains concerned with man as a man when he is not in a clinic, being questioned in a poll, behaving as a particle in the social structure, or lying as a. cadaver oh the dissecting table. We understand your (the Hu manist) reluctance to approve of faculty status for us; but we think you are about ready ta agree that we have earned a place- in the - university as li brarians. You trained us re- . member that the majority of li brarians was trained in the hu manities .to a calling of in tellectual rather than clerical responsibility. As never before, we need you to continue your stimulating criticism and your creative talent in building our libraries with a stamp of individuality and char acter. We need today your aid in our effort to use the research' library as more than a storehouse pf knowledge. We invite j'our un derstanding as the university li brary, again following the lead of the public library, accepts more fully an aggressive role through its extension depart ment, through friends of the li brary organization, through ra dio, television, exhibitions, and publications. I suspect that, if the human ists enter into this, new partner ship with librarians and perhaps accept the direction of it, they will find it both agreeable and profitable to themselves. More important still, they will discover it to be agreeable and profitable to the eyes which see, the ears which hear, the minds which un derstand the humanist in his university library. . on fly) 11 ou f : - - WEDNESDAY, r.. nourtdshout Papers Doings In T fl2 IF YOU thought we thing else from those "Bjr n't puupic who recently - ZXJl . -.. . (I Assume if tNa;. HJue v-. v -- -wiia; nas f"" time with not quite so conci;: dividual, as was the case in the Herewith a' long-awaited ta' ' chases and suspicious charac : murk: ev; ' LAST FRIDAY afternoon I v tional tip-off on the telephone a? ; called up and suggested that it -women's dorms early Saturday J V why, didn't say exactly how eav'' dorms; just suggested I be theru caU traced, but the Chapel Hi1! j has. unfortunately so far succT encroachments of the Scientjfc"u trace local calls, all telephone (5" automatically made. Hah! I though to myself in tu ' have of thinking to myself, Hah'T- lelt unturned shall be a burden 0nV back. This time we shall get to r" " "7,-13'? business (for I assumed, aaj -the 7-13 crew responsible for the p Smith dorm was also behind this f time the "Birds" would be tracks by the mighty pen, and gre, fall thereof. Little did I know." I figured, in a sudden burst of y;: 1 keenness, that if I was going to find v hind all this I had best catch the V me. uiii.Y. iu uo mat WaUnK to . they came I WAS there. I almost froze (if v the average temperature last Friday not say more), but I was there. At about two in the mornin I ly down to the Mclver-Aldermaafc: blanket and a pocket hand-warmer u stance behind a convenient, though scr: , bush on the edge of the Arboretum,!);! pie who have spent any time in tie i' night, I am undoubtedly one of tier have ever done so alone. And Friday:, ering the weather, was a night wh:; manded company. However, busincs not, as we say in the trade. There were several difficulties mv: taining this wake. The first Vasotec: Suffice- it to say that (a) the experie: Carolinians are not awfully good at i: weather, and (b) summer is warmer. It er 'was not the only privation. Since I -to be a diligent under-cover agent, a r duct of the Dragnet Crime Lab, Ice:: The" coal of a cigarette can be seen fs:. distance, and I was determined noU reer nipped in the bud by the lure of u unpropitious moment, like H. H. M-- I did not smoke. Furthermore, I na:r. m6ve. When one does not wish to be' not blunder around in the Arboreta: I sat, immobile, froze, and did not snr.cr TIME CREPT frostily on. Those si of having ulterior motives behind this- somewhat akin to those of a peeping assured that, charming though Care be they (most of them) have the the window shades provided by tiieU very few of the visible windows were; way, it was highly unlikely that the Wliderness'T were going to come like, out of a women's dorrn ia tne darkness. The windows blinked black, one byj fic lightened; the daytime nois-es of t zation gradually dwindled to an oc- rnar frnm no-irKv 'Franklin Stree. Oi clanging every fifteen minute I grew colder, mon desperate for l less sure of the wisdom of the vW hummed "Sixteen Tons", softly, and enly) verses from Shakespeare' Shakespeare; isn't that lovely?) ed by with icy languor. Three-thirty - die on the other side of the streel fr-forty-five. Four. I began to think iokers didn't "of nn with it and do J- sole material witness wasn't going1-1 be "material. Four-thirty. I came giving in and having a cigarette. At quarter of five, when I as away from going home, f heard a clonk" sound from the corner of just barely discern a figure moviiv beyond the street light. I me.sM around Mclvcr, intending to get a i . was from an unexpected angle- . i . ' H,-vn t-1""'' III llr W I I tm fcA IT3U U Ik II- v- Theatre. I hit Battle Lane at a a double, in an attempt to cut h:n But he either saw or heard nearoH r'amprnn Avrnue he Slldu- ' men's dorm side of the street, ran; dorm, climbed into a car and o'0. turning his lights on. so I cou ldn'i i . . ... j ., Knilt 49 piaxe. ii was a duck roru. , ii in iv iiMt'k' i 1 i iir riruai "CATTLE CROSSING' it said sm'dr'-M. 13' anH that HamnpH bird track, or in a eicarette i MiKe A . . . ' m . Tt-,rtlPf I ,. J nroullil. A I'll'', UIIU ViiIUTIU "CATTLE CROSSING"' signs were you know as much as I do, danin air'-
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Dec. 14, 1955, edition 1
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