North Carolina Newspapers

Focus 0 The New Traffic Law Still reader's retort n Leaves Way For Injustices f udenr s mqivic On 1 he Daily Tar Heel erred in its recent evaluation of the student Legislature's new law broadening the powers of the Traffic Commit tee. We still maintain that this law, giving the student Traffic Com mittee power to punish "excess ive' miffic violators,' was a mis take. Iut oik- of our reasons was based on somewhat less than the complete facts. Legislators, we held. ;ave too wide power rant Jo the Traflic Committee when they left it to the committee to decide just who were "flagrant" traffic violators. However, as student ,!o eminent officials have pointed out. the Traffic Committee's by-laws in cludiii'4 their definition of "Jla- grant" ol lenders is subject to legislative approval. However, our other objection remains, and it is strong and valid. It is unfair for any student to suf fer punishment twice for the same offenses, which is precisely what will occur under this law. Student violators will pay fines to Chapel Hill .rnd also be subject to punishment by a student group for the very same offenses. What kind of justice is that? The answer to ihe student car .problem ultimately will be some plan of limitation ol student cars either by the trustees or students, themselves. We'd prefer to see students set up their own limitations, if they must come. And the signs that trustees will take firmer action on auto than students are already evi dent. Self-limitation of student cars would require a bolder and braver course than student government and its President are following now. Hut, in the long run, it would stave more drastic trustee action. An Obligation For Fairness The housing problems of our brother institution in Raleigh may not be cause, for everyday concern by Chapel Hill students. But when one group is treated with favoritism and shoved in ahead of 272 other students, few can re main uninterested. It all started when married stu dents in housing units controlled by the State College Athletic De partment found they would have to move to other quarters. The students happened to be athletes, and they were assigned to the special project (National Youth Administration apartments) by athletic officials. The move was necessitated by construction of an intramural field, so college officials felt a "moral obligation?! tb provide the six married athletes with hcjusinj. - By-passingf a .n 7-studentj wait-. A Colossal Find: I :i Q ing list, the six athletes are being moved into Yetville, the colleges' housing unit for married students. Yetville residents are now seek ing legal 'advice because they feel the athletes were given preferred treatment. - Th Athletic. Department fixed up the NYA project to house the six married athletes. Of 12 units, only six were occupied. Yet no other married nonathletes were in formed of the vacancies or invited to live 111 the Athletic Department-controlled NYA develop ment. State College also has a "moral obligation" to the 272 students 011 Yctville's waiting list, as the stu dent : newspaper- there so aptly pointed, out. ! But 'the college has no particu lar obi igation , (to a- special group 1 jfajj ! jvas provide!; housing by . the Athletic; .Department,1-'!".."' ; ' ,Mi t .,: i I The Dead Sea Scrolls It was "rather early in the spring" of 1947 that a Bedouin boy, Muham med the Wolf by name, made the co lossal discovery of modern Biblical archeology as be tended sheep on the Western rim of the Dead Sea. The repercussions of his find al most two dozen caves lined with manuscript-filled jars are just now center ing their full impact on the West ern world, particularly the world of Christianity and Judaism. Edmund Wilson, who is at home in any critical job from Menander to Maeterlinck, from archeology to episte mology, writes about the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls in a recent book. The book is a slight elaboration on a lengthy article for The New Yorker magazine of May 14, 1955. Almost 10 years after the first dis covery, the first general impact is be ginning to be felt. At first only a dedi cated Metropolitan monk (now retired in New Jersey on the fat reward of his discovery) realized the value of the scrolls; he had a devil of a time con vincing his fellow clerics and the university-connected Biblical scholars to take an interest. The dramatic discovery coming, as it dd, at the height of Arab-Jewish hos tilities in 1947; the intrigue and diffi culty of getting the Scrolls to scholars who knew and felt their explosive-value, is enough. What lies beyond in impli cations for the Biblical faiths promises drama-extraordinary as the scrolls undergo exegesis. Briefly, here is what Wilson found: The uniqueness of Christ as the Christian Messiah may be brought again into question. Wilson reports this, knowing that "one of the worst tendencies of insensitive modern scho larship (is its tendency) to account for everything in the Gospels in terms of analogies and precedents." The Es senes a Dead Sea waste-land sect or monastic order, originally held the scrolls; they probably hid them in the caves as Roman legionaires invaded. The Doily Tar Heel The official student publication of the Publications Board 01 the University of North Carolina, where it is published daily except Monday and examination and vacation periods and summer terms. Entered as second class matter in ''the post office in Chapel Hill, N. C., under the Act of March 8, 187?. Subscription rates; mailed, $4 per year, $2.50 a se mester; delivered, $6 a year, $3.50 a seme-ter. Editors LOUIS KRAAIl, ED YODEIi The; Esenes record in some of, the scrolls a figure who partakes of sev eral key Messianic qualities-the same Messianic qualities as Jesus. Wilson reports that several Chris tian scholars assigned to these manu scripts (several hundred years older than any Biblical manuscripts we had before) have balked, balked in the face of serious questions-for their own re ligious commitments. This has hap pened on both Judaic and Christian sides, since beyond the question of Christ's uniqueness there is the ques tion of the legitimacy of the Masoretic scriptures. And, as one of the scholars told Wilson, "we now realize that there was much more variety and flexibility in Judaism than had ever been sup posed." Several scholars have even specu lated that the vacant period of Jesus's life, heretofore filled only by conjec ture, may have been lived in the Es sene order. The whole business is, needless to say, complicated to a layman who makes no claims as a Biblical scholar. Wilon's lengthy and resplendent es say doesn't argue any point except that the work ought to proceed as fast as possible. Wilson writes as, un pur savant, without theological compunc tions, without being pushed or res trained by personal theories or feel ings. - : But he is disturbed that the possi bilities of the scroll discovery have thus far appeared only in scholarly writings; for the laiety and the gen eral public there are only magazine and newspaper distillations. If the Jewish scriptures; the uniqueness of Christ; and the asumptions of the "liberal" Christian scholars that the Gospels had a non-organic growth stand at stake, that is, for Wilson, all the more reason why research should continue speedily with findings being laid bare in intelli gible terms to the waiting world. At the end of one of T. S. Eliot's es says, he claims that Irving Babbitt "knew too much" about the world's literatures and religions to go beyond his humanism into religious faith. Granted, a sweeping landscape view of religious faiths, a vague relativity mak ing no ultimate assumptions the ulti mate rule, is often an immature stage in the development of faith. But it is hard to see how a faith can offer com fort if its channels are closed to new blood. It is hard to see how the scholars who won't push for exegesis of the Dead Sea Scrolls can live with them selves religiouslyno matter how much lies at stake for their faiths. E. "V. I - urop iraaiTioii,' Yor Mine Editors: First, let me say that Tm not a Southerner. I've .spent most of . my life in California and the Pa cific areas. However, in the last year or so, with my father (a naval offi cer) stationed in Charleston, S. C, and me attending a' Southern university, I've been able to ob serve, to a slight degree, on hand some of the conditions I had heard so much about. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had been led to believe, on ihe one hand, in "Southern Hos pitality," but, on the other hand, was the picture of a haughty proud people who still evaluated others in terms of grandparents, etc. So I welcomed the chance to sees what it was really like .for myself as much as possible. How ever, let me state that I did not come with an altogether . un biased mind, for I have lived around people of many different races and somehow the idea of segregation didn't strike me too well. -; j ' , FOUND BOTH Well, I found both the friend liness and' the haughtiness, both the narrow and the broad mind ed. From what I've been able to see the last few months here at Carolina talking with various students, I find that most of them are sincerely attempting to look at the segregation problem ob jectively with a broad mind. But, unfortunately, most of the loud talking and attracting of atten tion seems to be done by a small minority of arrogant, narrow minded fanatics. Some of the letters I've read are of such an arrogant and nar row nature (e.g. Mr. Staton's in the Saturday Daily Tar Heel) that it is easy to see why ill-feeling against Southerners has been aroused in other sections of the country. It is always the loud ; minority which are heard and giye a bad reputation. I don't pretend to be able to offer aliy solution to your (the South's) problem, but I do think that the less, arrogance and narrow pre judice, the better the outcome will be. TO STATON To you, Mr. Staton, I would like to ask: Just who in the hell do you think you are? Exactly 'what sort of God-endowed superi orities do you possess which justify your presumptuoushess? There are a lot of peopfe in this world, Mr. Staton, and you had better get used to the fact that you're one of them, and you're going to have to live with them for quite a while. , Let me ask you what's so ter rible, so shocking, about the fact that an undergraduate Negro lives on the campus? Just forget tradition for a moment, and look at it with an open mind; are such 'Ready To Go To TRe Basketball Game, Toots?' . "'! Y4nl ill IDs ff ; - W ' i 1 CONVERSATION PIECE Time For President Fowler To., Work On New Cut Rule By Bill Ragsdale ' I'm very proud of this school. It is the kind of university that I will want my sons to go to. Perhaps the main reason for my "pride in this place is that we are treated with more than the usual amount of respect that is given a student ' body by the faculty and administration. 'We have been accorded this respect because in: times past we have deserved it; we have acted wise ly and consistently with the administration, and have had a voice in those matters that concerned us. Recently I.see this pride I have is in jeopardy! Other schools, and those close to us, are pulling ahead of us in areas in which we should be expect ed to take a lead. EXAMPLE ' , -'jb An example of what I write of is the cut rule'. As most of you krmw, Duke has established a sys tem of unlimited cuts for juniors and seniors. State College has the same arrangement, plus a provision that enables seniors to choose whether or not they, will take the finals in their various courses. State is a different kind of school from UNC; in our. mo'e liberal courses a final exam is perhaps more of a necessity than it is under their engineer ing curiculum. But we have as much right to free dom of choice in class attendance as anyone. This cut system we have came into effect a little over a year ago. There was a big furor be cause some professors were allowing any number of cuts and other p.ofessors weren't giving any, so it was requested that some standardization' be brought about. In response to this three professors C. C. Carter, F. M. Duffey and II. R Totten met and came ujp with the system that we 'have now, justifying it by saying, ."Regular attendance , at class is a student obligation . . . an obligation to the student himself and the State of North Caro lina." . - ;. . ; ' . " b ;- Sometime before long this system is going to comeup for review, and it is at that time that. we should get rid of it; obviously if we don't then it'll, be ; around foir years to come. WASTE TIME , No one neither the ; professors that have to waste time keeping track, of attendences, nor the students who are bound by the restriction and who are made to look childish by it, nor the personnel that have to process the slips and cards is in favor of the regulation, and no one is particularly . slow about voicing his disapproval. I have mentioned my reason for disliking the rule. It makes us look childish. That is not why we are here; if we are here to learn responsibility, then let us learn it, and those of us who don't learn it, those of us that don't come to class enough to keep up with why the class is .presented, can fail. But let us make the decision; let's don't have , it dropped down to us. To have that happen would be rediculous and an admission of a willingness to be regulated and looked after. - FOR FOWLER This is a time for Don Fowler to do something. We elected, him to be our spokesman, to plead our case before 'the administration, and in this he has a perfect chance to do something positive and con structive which wil save a lot of people a lot of trouble, give us more self-respect as students by putting us more on our own, reassert the powers of student government for the first time in too long a time, and keep us, as a student body, pro gressing at the same rate as other schools around here.:. -v ' ' Let us hope he gets on the stick. dire consequences in store? Will we all catch some horrible ail ment? Tell me, I'd like to know. I've gone to school with Negroes, Mexicans, Filipinos, Hawaiians, Chinese, etc., and I've had a lot of friends among them, so your shouting at. the mouth doesn't show me much. You mean to say you attended an attraction which featured a Negro? I'm astounded. I was tin der the impression that the sight of one in the same room would cause immediate disorders, due to some allergy or something. This hints at hypocracy, Mr. Sta ton. GUAM I would like to say a little about a small island in the Pa cific called Guam where I spent 11 months and attended my .sen ior year in high school. Of an at tendance of some 1800 students, ' I was a member of'the stateside minority which constituted about four percent of the whole stu dent body. Yet, need I say who created the most trouble, the most friction, need I say who did the most discriminating? One begins to wonder if with all our civilization and progress, we haven't missed something es sential, if we haven't disregarded something our country was orig inally founded on. Some of the sweetest, most sincere and con siderate people I've ever met were some of those native t stu dents. They might have been simple and native, but they were honest, and they put a, true value on other human beings. And then a girl from Virginia I knew there said to me, "I just can't stand to be near them (the natives) of touch them." How incredibly warped some people's sense of values can get. Yes, Mr. Clement, and you Mr. Staton, you are still living in the South, and you are still living , together; as human beings in a j f ree country. I am , proud of . how . . , Carolina on the whole has acted in the present situation, proud that there are enough intelligent, mature, considerate individuals here so that a disgrace similar to the Alabama incident wasn't able to occur. John Underwood Thinks Desegregation 1, Will Start At College Editors: I'm from South Carolina and although I'm not in favor of the stand my state has taken on the segregation issue, I'm still proud of my hailing place. People, let's wake up and face the future: It's an obvious fact that the Old South is on the way out, and a new South of equality and justice for all is on the way. You can't treat a man like dirt just because he isn't the same color that you are. Look at the progress that Negroes have made in the last hundred years. It's not amazing. It's the natural thing for a man to do, to try to better not only himself but also the world in which he lives. Th e N evs (This is'ihe first of a serie by Pi Sigma Alpha fraternity 0n '1 current national political de ' ' (Pi Sigma Alpha is the ' Jvonor society vHth chapters in 1 -The principal purpose of the tJ" greater interest in political sckn' and public affairs, in general r'k' Every fourth year thou! T examine the process of nominating President of the United States if quently depicted as "only one h from the Presidency. Such re-exam ten produced criticisms levelled ath' nating procedure and our Electoral of choosing fsom the nominees U" Both procedures have been'de-v democratic, unwieldly and obsolete suits have been declared potential'' ative of the people, yet in a century' ! no movement to reconstruct the enjoyed a significant following. Since the nominating procedure i precedes the election p.occss, this focus attention of a few pertinent qj. have arisen concerning the existing ination. ': PROBLEMS - First, an understanding of the prjb J nominating process requires some IT of the nature and organization of poi" in the United States. The most strife, American political parties is that thepr highly organized national machines. Tv fact, distinctly local in texture and ou: Our 1 constitutional provisions and rl" islation have left most of the legal cor,: tions in the' hands of the forty-eight ?'' states, in turn have left the mechanics ol ing virtually in the hands of the parties ural result is that elections and party c.r: Widely from state to state, being reo;n observe certain Constitutional guaranty dividuals. So party organization is to a high de?, mous, and enough flexibility exists to "loose" organization even at the local k parties then, being loosely federated frr-m to the national level, are subject to L::' heirarchical control. Ihey are common'; as "decentralized". PARTY SETUP Many voters, "not to mention million: f voters, are unaware of the nature of local 1 party organizations and hence unaware of ii ,b 'which 4 the opportunity for pardci?.! are inclined to be suspicious and ready L p1 opxkals .for ref ornL They tend to forge! l 'gates1 to a' natidnaT convention are almost r ly ebmmitteed to local interests. f;fj These - local commitments give us a wherein we find from 1,000 to 14.000 dc each partys convention, representing an 1 limited range of local interests and c.r the support of many candidates (at rJ. ' ballot). But most convention delegates, I bitious and enterprising politicians, will the state leadership, normally headed by : ernor, especially if his term is not expl::r; will they support a national faction ins position to their state organizations. Tit which exists, if any, involves a lack 0! nr. resentation. So from an extensive list of "favors national party convention must selects; who will prove satisfactory to a sufk:rt of local pressures to secure the nornm ed by similar considerations, the copv draw up a platform. The problem and tLe therefore, of the party convention is to a tent that of reconciling divergent ir.urc der to select a single candidate and e single statement of principles. UNITY fe Unity must be found in diversity. T. difficult one, but (if the e is an absence, resentative principle at the party con principally a result of the apathy o. voters. People who fail to appreciate or fully the necessity for parties and the perform all too often neglect to partic-j procedure -most important to repre- mocracy. ,.. . However, it should be recognized---nothing sacrosanct about our Preser'lr.. ; nominating the President and Vice - Hped. it ran hnasr neither of Consat-" ion nor tacit recognition, ivior to u-j ife pnndidates D) . Integration can be accomplish ed not over night, but over a period of years, and will have to start at the college level and gradually be brought into the caucus, and the candidates were ' high schools and, later, grade schools. party had nominated its Candida method. Rather they were chosen bv 11 - gener TO STATON In reference to the letter of Mr. Bob Staton: He seems to be not only narrow minded and de cadent, but also bigoted in his thinking. Mr. Staton should look at himself. 1 . I too would like to see a poll concerning the segregation issue. I would like to see the poll taken on this campus. I don't think that the majority of the students en rolled in the University are the narrow-minded prejudiced peo ple that some seem to think them. I think that we are people who believe that live and let live is not enough, but who adhere to the principle of livev and help live. W. D. Andrews .1. rapport with the legislative brancn. The development has been an has even been suggested that urd: . convention has contributed to the the somewhat unique Presidential tnPtif Tht rlnim here is that. D ' tion-by-caucus method been retaine f have witnessed the emergence of a .-; ment more akin to the English ParhJi: tem in which there would be greater bility. CONSIDERATIONS tv-u - While such a possibility remains, - ignores certain important con Kn fn Viof ovPfiitil'P K n'-'l me--' leoislafivp hrnnrhr another i U1J '.. - ' - tron or not, there has survived a ' p favor of the doctrine of sepcration ? gardless of the possible value t(i , the convention system as it has - ,.i-.,-.!iln J1- seemed to many tnai mtic - u v Vi the wildering means to accompli" election of the President. j,y Some who have been distress that both our major parties J,C , p frrv- nur f - t Virt intprests of tf ' J, pear to work for the interest have suggested party realignmen . .-i a fpntrai" ,ent t organization and increased par? u