PAGE TWO
The Dally Collegian Editorial Page
Editorials and columns appearing m The Daily Collegian represent the opinion* ot the writer. They make no claim to reflect student or University consensus. Unsigned editorials are written by the edttevi.
Building Boom
Welcome back to Penn State. Alumni!
Consternation at the sight of the College’s third
major building boom in modern times, and its
attendant “desecration of our lovely campus,” de
struction of vistas and the closing-in of buildings,
is probably struggling for emotional supremacy
among many of you.
It has been ever thus among the unrealistic
sentimentalists, be they alums, students, faculty
members, administrative officials or trustees. It
probably always will be.
How about it, you old-timers? Remember the
hues and cries when Central Library, Sparks and
Burrowes began to “clutter up” the north end of
the campus? Now this northern end of the mall
is one of the most attractive sections of the entire
campus.
In the light of the College’s responsibility to the
lax-paying citizens of the Commonwealth to pro
vide a means of low-cost higher education to its
sons and daughters, planned expansion must
apnear as a necessity, not a disaster.
Just sunpose that none of the buildings of the
last decade had been erected. Where would Penn
State be today without Electrical Engineering
Building, Osmond Lab (nee New Physics), For
estry, Ag Engineering, Atherton Hall or White
Hall?
Many of the present students—perhaps your
children, or younger brother and sister—could not
have matriculated for lack of facilities. This post
war.program, still far short of its necessary pro
portions, will help provide space for descendants
of today’s student body.
Let us, then, cheer the Diesel shovel, thrill to
the rhythm of the riveter's hammer as a bigger
and better Penn State of tomorrow unfolds
around us.
It would require an extremely hard-shelled
dreamer to deny that the new buildings are far
more attractive than the pre-1920 eyesores. Ob
viously. today’s supercrowded conditions would
prohibit the razing of even the most antiquated
relic until a new structure has been raised to re
place it.
So, as any healthy living organism must, let
Penn State continue to put forth new cells of life,
and eventually increase her beauty by expurgat
ing the deteriorated units.
On Saving Seats
We were sitting in the Beaver Field bleachers
; nst Saturday before the start of the West Vir
<inia game when something hit us smack in the
face.
It was the total unfairness of the almost uni
versal practice of saving seats.
Around us were several empty seats, yet stu
dent after student was turned away from them
with a curt “These are saved. Sorry.” And what
made us even more aware of the lack of courtesy
involved was the fact that we were saving two
nnmelves!
Everyone knows that in order to get better seats
• ban thorp given to the Blue Band one must get
♦ n the field no later than 1 o’clock the afternoon
~f tho pome. After that time it is difficult to get
- -nat—anv seat.
Apparently there’s no solution to the problem.
During the snring concerts of the music depart
ment in Pcbwab Auditorium this vear an attempt
was made to stop the practice, but after a few
concerts it was pnnnrent that people would be
i.oonle. pnd the old habit, resumed.
It would be impossible to establish reserved
for students because of group attendance
>nd the desire to mix. Besides, there would be
the ever-nrespnt nroblpm of placing classes ac
cording to rank. No method could be devised that
i-ould be nut into operation without a flood of
student criticism.
Voluntary, individual co-operation is the only
possible wav to alleviate the strain on tempers
that is sure to arise every Saturday afternoon
vhen there is a home game.
Remember: Don’t save a seat—save someone
-Ise’s temper
COLLEGIAN GAZETTE
Sunday, October 24, 1948
PI LAMBDA THETA, NE Lounge Atherton,
1 p.m.
ALPHA RHO OMEGA. 304 Old Main, 7 p.m.
College Hospital
Admitted Thursday: Ray Hedderick, Anthony
nhumskas and John Stanford.
Discharged Thursday: Alden Amig, Richard
'laker, Edwin Hanford. Melvin Breining, Annette
r.efkowitz and Cornelia Dreifus.
Admitted Erid.iv George Lukacs, Olin Simp
r.n and Pnvmnnd Shultz.
Disehavftnd k'ridji'': Anthonv Tsahei
rtreie. Twin T,inden^n r o Royce W. Nix, Raymond
Shultz and Joe’- nhitnn
College Placement
Hoover Comoany. October 27 and 28, eighth
semester men from EE and ME.
Lukens Steel Co.. October 29, eighth semester
men from ME and Metallurgy.
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., November 1
to 5, seventh and eighth semester men from Chem
istry, Chem Eng, ME and Mining Eng.
Proctor & Gamble Co.. November 2 and 3.
eighth semester men from ME. EE. lE. Chem Eng.
Ghornjctrv and Commercial Chemistry.
Brown Instrument Co.. November 9 and 10
einhth semester men from EE ME and Phvcics.
Cairo Chemical Division of American Cvnna
mid, November 3. eighth semester men from
The great American garaa
Ray Sprigle. Pulitzer nrize-w
of “The Pittsburgh Post Gazette,
Negro and for four weeks “lived
fellow Americans. In a series of t
The Daily Collegian, he presents hi
the names of persons and places :
involved.
For four endless, crawling
weeks I was a Negro in the Deep
South.
I ate, slept, traveled, lived
black. I lodged in Negro house
holds. I ate in Negro restaurants.
I slept in Negro hotels and lodg
ing houses. I crept through the
back and side doors of railroad
stations. I traveled Jim Crow in
buses and trains and street cars
and taxicabs. Along with 10,000,-
000 Negroes I endured the dis
crimination and oppression and
cruelty of the iniquitous Jim
Crow system.
It was a strange, new—and for
me, uncharted—world that I en
tered when, in a Jim Crow rail
road coach, we rumbled across
the Potomac out of Washington.
It was a world of which I had no
remote conception, despite scores
of trios through the South. The
world I had known in the South
was white. Now I was black, and
the world I was to know was as
bewildering as if I had been
dropped down on the moon.
The towers and turrets of the
great cities of the Southland,
painted against the falling night,
as we rolled along the highways,
represented a civilization and an
economy completely alien to me
and the rest of the black millions
in the South.
Only twice in my month-long
sojourn was my status as a black
man even remotely questioned. A
Negro doctor in Atlanta, to whom
I was introduced and with whom
I talked briefly, later turned to
my Negro companion, who was
leading me along the unfamiliar
paths of the world of color, and
demanded:
—Jack Reen.
“What are you carrying that
white man around with you for?’’
To which my friend replied:
“He says he’s a Negro and that’s
enough for me. Have you found
any way of telling who carries
Negro blood and who doesn’t?”
And if the doctor wasn’t con
vinced he was at least silenced.
Another time mv membership
>n the black race was doubted
was mv own fault. 1 broke mv
’•esolution to keen mv mouth shut
k'nr a coi'nle of davs I alone
in Atlanta, livin' 1 in the Negro
v M.C. A. and eating ir a small
hut excellent restaurant. Mrs
Hawk, the proprietress, tangled
me in conversation one day—
never a difficult task for anyone.
So, I talked too much, too fast
and too expansively.
A couple of days later she met
mv friend and remarked.
“That friend of vmirs—he talks
too much to be a Negro. I think
he’s white."
Detected No Suspicion
In the Land of Jim Crow
Questioned Only Twice
By Ray Sprigle
inning reporter and staff member
” recently disguised himself as a
I black” in the South among his
welvp articles, heeinning today in
is findings. Mr. Sprigle has changed
in some instances to protect those
contacts with Negroes, from na
tionally known leaders of the race
to share croppers in the cotton
rows I was accented as a Nccto. I
sat for long hours in Negro
grouns where we discussed every
thing from Shakespeare to atomic
energy and the price of cotton.
Neither I nor my companion ever
detected any reserve or susoicion
that I wasn’t just what I pre
tended to be. a light-skinned
Negro from Pittsburgh, down
South on a visit. I attended half
a do7en Negro meetings, from
Y.M.C.A. banquets to political
conferences and church gather
ings—and was even called upon
to speak.
My contacts with whites were
few indeed, but here, too, I went
unsuspected and unquestioned.
Southern whites have long taken
the position that when a man
savs he’s black, as far as they are
concerned, he is. So the white
folks never lifted an eyebrow
when I sat in the Jim Crow sec
tions of trains, buses and street
cars, drank from the “For Col
ored” fountains in courthouse and
railroad station, ate in Negro res
taurants, sat in the “For Colored”
sections of rail and bus stations.
Rarely is a light or white Negro
questioned in the South when he
seeks Jim Crow accommodations.
Now and then a conductor or
policeman will remind a passen
ger, apparently white, in a Jim
Crow coach, or a light-skinned
Negro entering a “For Colored’
restaurant —“That’s for Negroes,
you know.” But the usual re
sponse of “I’m where I belong”
ends the matter right there.
He Took Guide
Of course, I realize that if I had
tried to make my way through
the black South on my own,
alone, I would have met with sus
picion and rebuff on every hand
from blacks and whites alike.
Fortunately, though, I didn’t
have to go alone into the black
world of the South. Walter White
executive director of the Nations 1
for the A d”n nopmen *
of Poler-od Tiivmln, took care o f
♦ hit Out of bis vast store of
nnl one Nerrooc
end °nut'i Vie <"Vin»e a man to to.,a
•np thnninVi the warrens of dm
vicMr C~,|th.
And if there is nnv commenda
tion due anv one for these rhron
icles, surely the lion’s share must
go to that companion of mine. I
doubt if there is a man living
who knows the South, black and
white as he does. We ate. slept
hved and traveled for four weeks.
Tf I learned anvthincr about the
life pf the N an rn it is beonucp he
took meto the olace«. the men
(Continued on page three)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23. IMS
No Monthly Check
What would happen if suddenly your allotment
checks, or monthly allowance disappeared? Would
you be able to remain in college? There are many
men and women students who have never had the
benefit of the subsidy to which you are so ac
customed.
Have you ever truthfully asked yourself ft
you could keep up the pace of studies plus
whole, or even partial support? Lost in that
happy land of fraternity parties, football games,
and the old Saturday night date, it Is difficult
to realize that someone else is wondering if he
or she will be in the school the next week or
next month. Yet there are manv who struggle
valiantly only to be vanquished by the great
god Dollar Sign.
Silently they slip from the class lists while your
personal cycle of parties, studies, sports and the
dependable monthly check goes on.
Admittedly women are the weaker of the race.
Partial support for a woman is often a more dif
ficult task than total support for a man. Female
employment opportunities are comparatively
scrawny. A woman cannot work at high paying
manual labor during the summer to accumulate
a F+urdy bulwark against fall and winter expenses.
The Dean Charlotte E. Bay Scholarship was
set up in 1946 for the purpose of rescuing
worthy women students from financial tangles.
It consists of $lOO per year, and is maintained
by funds accrued from the annual Mortar Board
Carnival, this year renamed "Mardi Gras." The
Mardi Gras will be held in Bee Hall on Friday.
For the first time fraternities' and independent
men’s groups have been invited to sponsor
booths, eiher alone or in conjunction with a
sorority or women's group.
Mortar Board asks for cooperation in making
the celebration a success both financially and as
an entertainment. Those few hours you spend
next week planning your booth will be a step in
this direction.
Mavbe $lOO hardly seems worth the trouble to
you. Mavbe vou spend that much in a few. weeks
of partving. But it might be the needed bridge to
graduation day for the young lady in your comp
class.
The Big Race
Another year—another influx of coeds on cam
pus. Yes, the coeds have done it again. As the
weekends come and go, new faces can be seen cir
culating about the fraternity houses, hot-dogging
it in ye old corner room, arid causing the green
horns of jealousy to pop up on the heads at the
junior and senior girls.
How well the “old faithfuls” recall their sopho
more days when they too were being sought after.
But now they must resign themselves, at least
for the time being, to a cheerful smile, a cour
ageous lift to the chin, and weekends of dateless
monotony.
Sacrifice is the key word in sororities these days.
The actives amuse themselves with forming date
bureaus for the benefit of their innocent, wide
eyed pledges, whose duty it is to be seen at the
latest social affairs on campus. Can’t you just pic
ture the crowd of male admirers that has gathered
about Miss Susie Sophomore as she turns from
side to side, smiling engagingly, and exposing her
newly acquired pledge ribbons for the benefit of
her appreciative audience? “Are you affiliated
with a sorority?” queries one of the less intelli
gent young men of the group. That’s right, Susie,
shake your head yes, smile and let those Greek
words that have taken you nights to memorise
pour glibly from your lips—and stop right there.
Remember, anything you say will be held against
your sorority. And while you are being swept off
your feet by those handsome men-about-State, the
boosters of your popularity are sitting in and con
centrating on turning the heels of their argyle
socks, secretly cursing their men friends who have
found greener pastures.
What is this magnetic charm that casts an aura
of temporary insanity about the heads of the male
members of this college community with the open
ing of every fall semester? Can it be that the
entrance of the sophomores on campus stimulates
the inherent drive of aggressiveness and mascu
linity on the part of the complacent, easy going
men here at State? Is it that new things are always
more intriguing and mysterious? Or finally could
it be that these new faces about campus will prove
to be a novelty that will wear off sooner than un
suspecting Susie Soph thinks? Here’s hoping!
utye Hatty Collegian
Successor to THE FREE LANCE, nt. lift
Puhllshod through Saturday mornings fnclaaW* 4ww
” ,r College v#»nr hv tho nt nff of Tht Dally Cotlogfov) of Tho
r 'onnp'lv flT im Rtitr College Entered »p second elms* matter
r ”’v < mrt4 SW* CnlWc. Pa. Pont o*fiec on dor Dm
Mnroh 3 187 ft Subscriptions —l2 ■ wmwtir. 14 tfc#
,Up n i vmr
°<*hrA«*ntod fr<r nn+fnnal sdvorMsfng hr National Adfflllfr
w, tJorvlre. Avo.. New York. NY Chicago. Boots®,
e<a Pun FrsnMscn.
9 "W fitona
Managing Ed.. Elliot Shapiro; Now» Ed., Maleolm WMto)
Sports Ed.. Tom Morgan; Edit. Dir. Ami Gerton; Psaturo Ed.*
to Fox; Society Ed.. Frances Kwnft: Asst. Boc. Ed., uiiHt
Neville: photo Ed.. Betty Gibbons: Co-Promotion Mgr., Bohoo
ZaAofskv: Senior Claire Lee.
STAFF THIS ISSUE
M,n».ln* Editor
AsMstiint ----
WJI, or
» MV""t
G*r MS
—Jo Fox.
—CVinrtctte Seidman.
Wn«!n«.. Mainim
Vane* C, KltßMf
Jutin Bnudl
Alhwt Km
Wilh«rt Mt
Bo ■
Me