Newspapers / The Chapel Hill Weekly … / April 23, 1943, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page Two The Chapel Hill Weekly LOUIS GRAVES Editor SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Ye*r $i.5C ZaUmd *t «!-<■;*» mi IV* febrmrf ti. }jr£S. « tv as Clotsm H • _ S' "*~ Careers*. «*• tv »« wJ M»r« i Jl'i “The Survival of ihe F it test “The Survival of the Fittest ■** Herbert Spercer > tx&nsi&tion of Charles Darwin's- phrase. “Nat-rai Selection.” Having be t '■ miliar mud repetition, it is used by thousands of people :r. a sense '.hat is quite different from what Darwin meant. Os course very few of these people have ever read a word of Darw ir. ; they are merely parroting something they have written, or have heard said. Lv jvjmerxidv e.>e who profiably ai«o ha- never looked into a Dar win book. They provide one more pit of evidence in support of the truth of the poet's saying that a little learning -a dangerous thing. The widely prevalent miscon ception of Darw .r - meaning is discussed in a monograph by R Pi Coker, professor of zoology in the University here, entitled “What Are the Fittest?” Limi tation- of space prevent u- from quoting as much of this mono graph as we would like to but a few passages we believe. win serve fainv well to show what Darwin had ir. mind when he used the words that have been translated into “The Survival of the Fittest:” ” ‘Fittest’ and ‘strongest’ were never tended to v -ynonymou ter rn- ir biology Biologists may fail ir. their responsibilities to th<- thinking world if they do not try to make clear to states men, hi-torian-. and philoso phers. to speaker- ar.d writer- in general, tha* th<- conventional us<' of the term, 'the sur'.,'.al of the fitte.-t,’ ha.- not, and never has had. the sanction of those j>ri marily <x cupied with analysis, arid interpretation of biological phenomena. “It i- well known that a very common lay interpretation of ‘natural -.election,’ or ‘the -or . fa o.f th< fittest, L denti fied with tb< supposed principle of ‘tooth and claw’ or with the al leged ‘Jaw of the jungle’ pro mulgated by tho>< who ne-.er -av. a jungle. We all know that, this inter pretation by whole nation . not indu'd by all citizen- of any na tion (for no 'principle of action is ever reeogflized by all who.se actio/i jt go.erri.-j, bg at lea -4 by a large and effectively mil jential portior of -ome nations, ha.- now made thi supjjo.sed rdc of ‘t Fi<- -urvival of tfie fill - t jn threat and combat th<- bii. i- of national policy. V\ •• know, moreover, that -eh a definition r- accepted by a .great numis r of otherwi < competent noii-biological think er.- a well a- by some wfio do very little or only .second-hand thinking ‘I fa- not uncommon linkage of international war and the principle of natural .-election was painfully exemplified re cently by a radio >js-aker who, in concluding a somewhat dramatic narration of war news, exclaim ed: ‘What a pity that Charles Darwin was ever born !’ Thus ex cising an appalling ignorance of Darwin ! . . “Who are the fittest? The real question arises not as to the prin ciple of ‘the survival of the fittest,’ but rather as to the qualities that make for fitness to survive, to populate the earth and to progress, that is to say, to grow progressively in the characteristics that have demon strated fitness. Here we enter into the realm of opinion, and opinions will generally be based upon observation, inference, logic and, to be sure, in no little part, where the survival of man is involved, upon a reasonable faith; for it is another charac teristic of man that he has ideals and faith, although the effect of his faith on his behavior in a group is most variable. With re spect to mankind there may be diverse theories as to the condi tions of survival, but it seems clear that any and all opinions fall necessarily into one of two opposing groups, and it may make a great difference what type of opinion any great group of people has; because man is again distinguished from lower .animal- by his notable capacity to modify his behavior or to have it modified under the influence of abstract opinions - '. It is really ; . • there! n t hat a-1 ial or expressed principles of action be critically examined and ap praised for their potentially good or r>ad effects on human behavior and on ultimate human welfare “There is, for example, the ex pressed opinion that survival is best assured by aggressive com bativenes,- carried even to the extreme of unscrupulous and merciless brutality. . .” “Darwin needs no defense, but, -o that the thoughtle-- ascription to him of such a conception of the conditions of survival and evolution may not go by default, J quote a few sentences from his; book. ’Thu- Descent of Man.’ ' In this book he suggests'that, had man been derived from ‘an animal posse-sing great size, strength, and ferocity,’ he ‘would not perhaps have become social; ar.d *.fc:- would most effectually have cheeked the acquirement of the high< r mental qualities, such a- sympathy, and the love of his: fellow- A compensatory ad vantage for want of strength and speed he finds in ‘hi.- -</ ial quali tie-. which lead him to give and r<x eive aid from hi- fellow man.’ Again he .-a;. -(p 112, edition of Uollier. 1900): ‘The moral ,-<-n-e perhaps af ford- th<- ly-t and highe.-t dis tinction between man and the lower animals; but J need say nothing on this head, as 1 have -o lately endeavored to -how that the social instincts -the prime principle of man’- moral consti tution with the aid of active in tellectual power- and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden rule, “A.- ye would that, men should do to you, do .<■ to them likewu.-e and thi- lie,- at the foundation of morality ' “Darwin did not overlook the fact that man has been socially cisijs-rative in inter-tribal com bat-, or the fait that man has never attained any degree of per il'lion a a .--is ial organism, but. rather ‘man still hears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his; lowly origin,’ and, bv jrn - plical ion, also in his; -ocial frame. According to Darwin, man owes hi- civilization in no small part to being social, (inoperative and kindly. It. may be that he was all wrong in this opinion, or that he overemphasized the social quali ti<-•, but at least if. is nonsensical and libelous to ascribe to him a view that is the exact converse of the one he hast so well ex pressed.” I he part of Mr. < oker’s mono graph (the part from which we have quoted) is called ‘‘A Mis chievous Fallacy.” The second and final part is called “War through the Glasses of a Biolo gist.” The Stainbacks in California Lt. and Mrs. K. F. Stainback are at the Coronada Club, 707 Orange avenue, Coronada, Calif. Lt. Stainback is taking an ad vanced course in the Sound School and will lie there until May 8. Mrs. Stainback is work ing four hours every day in an airplane factory. John Hanft 6 Yearn Old John llanft celebrated hiH 6th birthday Monday with a lunch eon party. Literary Guild Chooses Mrs. Betty Smith’s Novel (Ccmtxnufd from first page) the public, there will be more copies printed, and more royal ties. And the producers out in Hollywood are putting in offers fcr the movie rights For years Mrs. Smith has been struggling, with the wolf con stantlv nosing in at the door, to feed and clothe and educate two daughters. She ha.- done her own cooking and housework. In be tween —and she has made those in-between times regularly, in spite of all difficulties —she has sat at her typewriter and writ ten plays and, lately, this novel. The publication of her plays has brought her in a little money now and then, and she has got >ome help from the Federal Theater Project and from fellow ship- “ When I decided two years ago to write a novel,” she said to a caller one day this week, “the big question was: When? It would take a lot of time, and if I quit other writing that meant that I would not be having any thing to live on. So I decided I would get up at 6 o’clock in the morning, instead of at 7 a- I had been doing. “That is what 1 did. I wrote on the novel from 6 to 7; when I didn’t get through with a- much a- I had set myself to for one day, I would put in some more work late at night—and then -tar*, in again at C th<- next morn ing.’' f Continued from fir at j/age) is- eaten at the -arne meal with milk (ice-cream, etc.).” 'There i.-. not the faintest evid ence that any such combinations are harmful if they include foods which are safe to eat alone. If any of these food.-, have been -polled by some type of bacterial ; etion they will be unwhole-ome to eat., whether eaten alone or < ornbined with anything else. In recent years many faddist diets have appeared, often for the purpose of scaring the public in to buying the author’s: “Cucumber should not be eaten with milk.” “Fruit should not b<- eaten with oi her foods. y "Milk and cherries Inr ariy other acid fruit) are a bad combina tion.” “Meat with milk is a bad com bination.” "Two stare he- should not be < aten at the same meal.” “'Two kinds; of fruit- should not lx- eaten at the ame meal.” The same comments as. given above apply to the e idea.-, Not a single one has the fainte t bit of foundation. I tllfl :t lljll itlf of food “< hicken h the most, dige-tlble meat and should be used for in valids, convalesc' nts, etc.” "Fork i the least digestible of meats.” ’The be -1 measurements which have been made of the relative ease and speed of digestibility of these meats have failed to show that there is any distinction whatever between speeds of di gestion if the meat has Ijeen chewed to the same degree. It is true that meats containing more fat digest a little more slowly than pure lean meats, because a coating of fat around a particle of protein can delay digesting un til the mass of food reaches the small intestine. 'This is no objec tion in the* case of a normal per son. While it might l>e said that fat meats in general are, for this reason, less suitable for invalids, there would lie many exceptions even to this statement, and cer tainly the variety of animal that produces the meat has in itself no effect on speed or ease of di gestion. “Hog fat is particularly indigest ible.” ~ 1 "Fried fats are always indigest ible.” THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY F(kk i Fads and Fancies The novel contains 185,000 | words. There were 800 type written pages, double-spaced, in the duplicate manuscript that Mrs. Smith showed her caller. She .-tarted two years ago; finish ed the first draft of the book in a year and rewrote it lour times; ,and did the final typing herself. Mrs. Smith, born and brought lup in Brooklyn, married when -he was 17. She had two children when she was 19 and presently had the entire responsibility for them. For a while she had a job on the Detroit Free Press, and -he managed to scrape together enough money to enter the Uni versity of Michigan. She com pleted all the work for an A.B. degree, but couldn't have the de gree because she had never been graduated from high school. She went to Yale and there studied playwriting first under George P. Baker and then under Walter Prichard Eaton. Mr. Eaton has kept in communication with her, and has given her encourage ment and aid in her work. And F. H. Koch and Paul Green have helped her, too. The recognition of her talent by these three and other friends led to her receiving an Avery Hop wood fellowship, a Rockefeller fellowship, and a Dramatists’ Guild fellowship. Mrs. Smith’s older daughter, Nancy, is taking the pre-med course in the University and is going to be a physician. Mary is a sophomore in the University. For the reason mentioned above fat- are slower to digest, hence the statement that we of ten hear, that a meal with more fat “stays with you longer.” But fat from the pig is no harder to digest than any other fat.; and fried foods, if properly fried and not soaked in the fat, are not necessarily any the less digest ible. “Cheese; is hard to digest.” “Bananas ar<- hard to digest, especially by young children.” “Raw potato is indigestible.” None of these statements is true. As regards raw potato, it may be said that any vegetable containing much starch is some what more easily digested when cooked than raw, but that, does not mean that there is any objec tion to eating a raw' vegetable if we happen to like it,_ It is even being recommended nowadays that a little scraped raw' potato be given to young children as a means of supplying them with -orne vitamin C, if the economic condition of the family does not permit buying other sources of this vitamin (fruits, etc.). “Lemon juice is better than vine gar for salads, because it is a naloral fruit acid. ’ "Vinegar makes the blood thin.” Lemon juice is better than vinegar if you like it better and can afford to buy the lemons It is also better Is'cau.se it contains vitamin C, which vinegar does not. But we can get the vitamin C from other sources, and the a< nl in lemon juice is no better for the body than the acid in vinegar. Vinegar in moderate quantities is perfectly whole some. Ii does not make the blood Thin. I would not know just how to go about making the blood of anybody thin by means of any kind of food. S /nr/fir Effects of Foods Under this heading we have some of the very best itoftls of our collection. It is hardly neces sary tb make any comment about any of these; not a single one has any basis of truth, with the pos sible exception of one or two cases which will he mentioned lie low. "Acid fruits (tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, etc.) make the stomach acid.” The stomach of any normal be ing is and has to be much more acid for the digestion of food ;than the acidity of such fruits. This extra amount of acidity is negligible when compared with that of the stomach, and the acids in these fruits are almost always burnt by the body so completely that they have no final effect on : acidity. Many erroneous ideas are afloat and have been thrust on the public, to the effect that | people should at all costs prevent jtheir bodies from becoming too acid, and should therefore eat large amounts of alkaline foods, or buy drugstore preparations to produce alkalinity. Such reme dies are never necessary under | any normal conditions and should j certainly not be employed except by the direct recommendation of la physician. | “Salt causes cancer.” j “Oranges and lemons or toma toes cause cancer.” There is no known food which causes cancer. “Some meats should always be eaten raw.” This is untrue. Most meats are much better and safer cook ed. The idea that raw meat is beneficial was partly derived from magazine stories about ex periences in the Arctic where ex plorers ate a small amount of raw liver to obtain vitamin C. With us this is unnecessary since we have ample amounts of vitamin (' in our fruits and raw vege tables. The cooking of meat, especially pork, is particularly valuable as a means of killing such dangerous parasites as tri chi nea. “Nuts are the best form of pro tein and have some special value.” Nuts are good sources of food, the peanut being particularly valuable, but they are not neces sarily better than any other ! foods. i “Meat, especially beef, makes boys more aggressive.” i“Fish is a good brain food.” “Bread crusts make the hair curly.” “Onions and garlic are good for colds.” “Beets make red blood.” “f.'elery is good for the nerves.” " ( elery is good for rheumatism.” | “Carrots are good for the eyes.”] “( arrots clear the complexion.” “ 1 omatoes clear the brain.” “Tomatoes are a good liver tonic.” “Oranges and lemons aid di gestion.” I “Raisins are needed by everyone | for iron.” I “Lettuce makes one sleep.” j "Onions eaten before bedtime arej 'it cure for brvornnia.” I "Egg-white injures the kidneys.” Ihe only one of the above j winch has the faintest semblance *d truth is the connection be tween carrots and eyes. Night blindness is caused by a defi ci< iicy in vitamin A. Carrots are rich in vitamin A. In no other regard are they better for the '•yes than any other vegetable; and, if carrots are good for the eyes, so also are butter, egg yolk, green leafy vegetables, and sweet potatoes, all of which con tain good quantities of this valu able vitamin. Classroom 'Teachers’ Meeting Ihe ( hapel Hill Classroom Teachers held their April meet ing Monday evening at the home, of Mrs. Fred B. McCall. A buf fet supper was served; the mem bers of the local school hoard and the school administrators were guests. The regular meeting af ter the supper was presided over by Miss Mildred Mooneyhan, the president of the organization. j D.A.R. Meeting The Davie Poplar chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will meet at 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon at Spencer hall, with Mrs. Irene Lee and the other members, hostesses to the General Davie chapter of Dur ham. Harry Comer will speak. Friday, April 23, 1943 Mrs. McCall’s Leave Mrs. Fred McCall has a six weeks leave of absence from the elementary school here to serve as one of the three state directors :of the extended school service now being established by the Government for children whose mothers have jobs away from home. Miss Frances Martin, a j member of the staff of the Gov ernment agency concerned with this enterprise, has come from Washington to help get the new school service started in North Carolina. She was in Chapel Hill 'day before yesterday for a con ference with Mrs. McCall, j It is not only in communities j where there are war industries ithat there has been an increase in the number of the women leav ing home for work. Everywhere women are taking the places, in factories, stores, and offices, of men who have gone into the 'armed forces. This means that a great number of children can -1 not be cared for, as they used to ibe, by their mothers. The Gov ernment is moving to deal with this situation through the ex pended school service. The service is for children from 2 to 14 years old. Many of I the children who go to regular ■schools haye to be looked out for ! •before school opens in the morn ing and after it closes in the afternoon. .Mr. Buckner Recovers C. E. Buckner, principal of the high school, who was ill last week, has recovered. A\)l rl/ Sl!NI) A V INI n MONI) A Y ■ Each Face Hides UA SECRET PASH tt&t JB&*' ■ —Tuesday— ■ JOAN FKANCHOT ■ BENNETT TONE ■ "She Knew All the An«wer»” ■ —Wednesday— ■ ROBERT ELLEN ■ I'REHTON DREW ■ ■ ' MOM I OF JA.M’AKY IflTH*' ■ —Thursday— I ■ //Aco Aj mu* mct u» « ■ OINOER y «EORriE m Rogers mi io'hv ■ ■ “TOM, DICK AND HAIOtY” —Saturday— GENE AUTRY ■ ■ “DOWN MEXICO WAY”
The Chapel Hill Weekly (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 23, 1943, edition 1
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