PAGE TWO The Daily Collegian Editorial Page Editorials and columns appearing In Tha Daily Collegian repremmt the opinion• of the writer. They make no elaim so reflect student or University consensus. Unsigned editonals sra writhe los the elite& Why Vote at All? Sophomore elections, scheduled for today at the TUB, bring up one of the most important ques tions in student government, why vote at all? Far too many students seem to adopt the atti tude that these elections concern only those imme diately concerned with the political parties—the clique members, officers and nominees. Since all sophomores are neophytes to campus politics at Penn State, it is essential that they realize that it is a must for them to participate in the election today. A truly democratic election cannot be successful unless there is widespread common interest in it. This interest must arise from the voters. In the past there has been a lack of interest. The turn out at recent elections was only 20 to 30% of the eligible voters. If you want student government that you can be proud of, one that truly represents the students enrolled in your class, cast your vote today. But casting your vote is not enough, you must cast it wisely. This does not mean a careful study of the candidates' photograph and th,Fn voting for the better looking guy or girl, neither does it mean to vote a straight party line. It does mean, however, inquiring into the past record of the candidates and gaining a personal knowledge of their character and personality. Past abilities usually foretell future potentialities. Don't stray aimlessly to the TUB today but know whom you are going to vote for and why. It is your duty to vote and vote wisely, and not until you do exactly that can today's election be termed successful. Stea m I ined Giving The perennial "charity drive" season will open soon. Following rapidly one after the other, the pleas of many "worthy causes" irritate the giver and exhaust the resources of the quota-harried promoter. A satisfactory method of eliminating the dis agreeable characteristics of a multitude of drives, and of increasing the efficiency of the very Amer ican custom of cheerful giving, has been practiced successfully in most cities and in many other universities. "Why not a Campus Chest?" was asked edi torially by the Daily Collegian in May. National Student Association committee has mentioned the institution of a "chest" at Penn State. Unfortunately, action has not passed the talking stage, although it would appear that such a pro gram would be enticing to all groups contemplat ing a drive for necessary funds. Probably little need be said about the obvious efficiency of the chest plan. Workers from the co operating organizations, by pooling their efforts, prevent duplication of solicitation, and enable a more efficient and concerted coverage of all stu dents, faculty and administrative personnel. Students in the past have shown that, even even though they must be dollar-conscious, they are still willing to "give 'til it hurts" to worthy causes. They should appreciate the fact that their money will be more beneficially given, under the chest plan. Student objections to contributing to causes and organizations with which they are not in sym pathy can be overcome by permitting them to ear mark their donations for specific uses in which thny do have an interest. Perhaps the soliciting organizations will feel sh=it students will be unable or unwilling to con tribute as much at one time as they would over an extended period. An installment system should adrquately meet that objection. Charitable groups may think that they will not receive an equitable share of the solicitations. Considering that they are cooperating, instead of competing for the available funds, more money should be obtained by each. Distribution could be made on the basis of need and participation in the 'lrive. Someone—All-College Cabinet, NSA commit tee, or interested organizations—should instigate :lotion at once. before the drive season begins. Let's simplify and streamline our giving. The Built; Collggian suer...., to THE Build LANCE, est. 1877 P Vished Tuesday through Saturday mornings inclusive Or og the College year by the titaff of The Daily Collegian of The •.•; raylvania State College. Entered as second class matter Orly 5 1934 at the State College. Pa.. Poet Office under the ,-t of March 3, 1879. Subscriptions —s3 a semester. $4 the hew! year. Represented for stational advertising by National Adrertis ng Service. Madison Ave.. New York. N.Y. Chicago. Boston .08 Angeles San Francisco. Editor Lew Stone Managing Ed.. Elliot Shapiro; News Ed., Malcolm White: Sports Ed., Tom Morgan; Edit. Dir. Arni (keen; Feature Ed., to Fox; Society Ed., Frances Keeney: Asst. Sot. Ed.. L.oretts Neville: Photo Ed., Betty Gibbons; Promotion Mem, Selma Zaoaahr Senior Board, Claire Leo. Asst. Baa. Mgr.. Margaret Bream; Adv. Director, Barbara Keefer: Local Adv. Mgr.. Selma Liimpert Smith: Circulation Sir.. Brett &witch : Clam. Adv. Mgr„ Wilma Brehm; Pm— mnnel Mgr., Koati Burgas; Mice Mgr, George Lifts wiry, Mimi Pomerene. STAFF THIS ISSUE Managing Editor . Araistant News Editor ___ /kite/ate:a . Copy Editor_________ Asaiatant_ _ Advertising Manager_ —George Vedas:. Business Manager Vance C. Klepper lobaßonnoll --- .George Seibert I"Robert Roo' Barbara Wachtel Dorothy Hunshergor Rey Kbehlor J)on Biker litab CLAD Non Political Ballot In the Land of Jim Crow nay Sprigle, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and staff member of "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette," recently disguised himself as a Negro and for four weeks "lived black" in the South among his fel low Americans. This is the sixth of a series of twelve articles in which he presents his findings. Mr. Sprigle has changed the names of persons and places in some instances to protect those involved. When they call the roll of Americans who died to make men free, add to that heroic list the name of Private Macy Yost Snipes, black man, Georgia, U. S. A. Death missed him on a dozen bloody battlefields o v ersea s, where he served his country well. He came home to die in the lit tered door-yard of his boyhood home because he thought that freedom was for all Americans, and tried to prove it. It wasn't that he didn't get fair warning. He knew what to ex pect. And he got just that. Early in July the white folks passed the warning through the Negro countryside around the lit tle sun-warped country hamlet of Rupert, in Taylor County, Geor gia. It was brief and to the point. The first Negro to vote in Rupert would be killed, ran the word. Macy Yost Snipes hadn't even thought of voting, so his friends told me. But when the word came that he'd die if he did—then he decided that he'd vote. He had never voted. He didn't know where or how to do it. He went to Butler, the county seat, to regis ter. There they told him he'd have to go back to his home town of Rupert to register, and later, vote. The white folks in Rupert let him register. There were already a few Negro names on the registry lists. Bright and early on Election Day Macy appeared at the polling place and voted. Afterward Macy told a friend that the white folks on the election board ap peared "sorta dazeiff as he cast his ballot. "It wa's like they thought a dead man was voting." Macy said laughingly to his friend who told me the story of how a Georgia Negro died. Private Snipes didn't know it, but the white folks were right. He was already dead when he drop ped that ballot in the box. The white folks just let him walk a round another week before they buried him. Just a week later four white men drove up to Macy Suipes's ' home, called him out, and after a While waiting for a date in Atherton Hall last weekend the word "cocktail" printed on a menu struck our eye. Shades of Dean Weston! Cocktails served in dining commons. Happily, though, the drink seemed to consist of only grape juice and ginger -ale. Do girls who chink wow *gibe get Mee 61111168 than the nalwarinamoot By Ray Sprigle few words riddled him with bul lets and drove off. Taking courage from the fact that the white folks had promised to kill only the first Negro who voted, another black man voted after Private Snipes. He was right. The white folks didn't kill him. They just ran him out of the county. But even after they had mur dered him, the white folks were n't finished with Private Macy Yost Snipes. The Snipes family owned a little burial plot in a Ne gro cemetery near Rupert. The mother and father of the dead soldier arranged with a Negro undertaker to bury their slain son in the family plot. But the day of the funeral the undertaker got word from Rupert. "You try to bury that nigger here and you better have another grave ready for yourself." The undertaker had a plot in another cemetery at the other end of the count y. That's where Macy Snipes rests. But it wasn't enough to murder the returned veteran and deny his body burial because he had sought to overthrow whits su premacy by dropping his ballot in the box. The white folks decided that they wanted none of Macy Snipes's family in their midst, either. The Snipes family were hard-w ork i n g and respected farmers owing 150 acres which provided them with a better-than -ordinary competence. They were warned that they had better get out of the county. "Remember" one note read. So the Snipes family sold their farm and fled North. They live in Ohio now. And what about the champions of racial purity who murdered Macy Snipes? Well, one William Cooper proudly claimed the hon or of having fired the shots that dropped the young veteran in front of his own threshold. He hunted up the coroner and ex plained that he and his friends were just trying to collect $lO from him. When Snipes told him that Macy Snipes had borrowed (Continued on page six) Edit Briefs TUESDAY NOVEMBER 16 1941 -SWety Valve Another Landmark TO THE EDITOR: Many Penn State people— students, alumni, faculty—would like to see the "Hort Woods" area of our campus preserved in a natural state„ While there has been no announced intention of placing buildings in it, disturbing rumors to that effect keep cropping up. Nobody has said that buildings will not go there, Even now the largest of trees in it are being felled with ominous frequency. In its way the situation is not unlike the forgotten case of Mt. Nittany, when a landmark was saved from despoliation in the nick of time. The Hort Woods tract, too, is worth preserving. It is the last remaining portion of this campus ,to retain the wilder tang of a Penn State which has vanished. All the rest has been transformed into a well tended and landscaped suburban lawn on a large scale. Only in Hort Woods can the leaves now fall in autumn to lie throughout the winter, instead of being scooped up by gasoline powered leaf rakers. Preservation of this spot can only be assured by making it officially untouchable. All Penn State graduates and undergraduates might in some manner bring pressure to have these woods set aside and dedicated as a memorial grove—perhaps as a living memorial to soldiers, but in any case as one to an older Penn State. No funds would be needed. Little should be done to the place other than to keep it intact as a natural retreat for plant and animal life. But surely steps ought to be taken to do this before other irrevocable decisions are made and we are left holding nothing but regrets. —H. E. Dickson, '22, Professor of Fine Ars, Good Scouts Know TO THE EDITOR: Why doesn't the ROTC get on the ball? Even the Boy Scouts know that a flag at half-mast is lowered to the ground before being raised to its full height. Collegian Gazette Tuesday, November 1$ WRA BRIDGE CLUB, WH Playroom, 7 to 8 p.m. WRA FENCING, 1 WH, 7 to 8 p.m. WRA BOWLING TEAMS, WH Bowling Alleys, 6:30 p.m. COLLEGIAN AD STAFF, Collegian Office, 41:46 p.m. MEN'S BRIDGE CLUB, PUB, 7 _p.m. DRUIDS, 409 Old Main, 7:30 p.m. College Hospital Admitted Saturday: Ruth Neiman. Discharged Saturday: John Post, Irwin Robin son, John Folk and Ruth Neiman. Admitted Sunday: George Gushn*r, Donald Gib son, Emerson Leiter and Ruth Gebhard. — Discharged Sunday: Gordon Cunningham and Joe Mazza. Admitted Monday: William Ruth. College Placement General Fireproofing Co., Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., and Timken Roller Bearing Co., eighth semester men from CE, EE, lE, ME, Arts and Let ters, C&F, Metallurgy, Mining Eng. Chem Erg, Physics. General Electric Co., November 15 and 16, eighth semester men from EE, ME and lE. Westinghouse Electric Corp., November 17 and 1-8, eighth semester men in EE, lE, ME, Metal lurgy, Chem Eng, and Chemistry. Linde Air Products Co., November 15 anod 17, eighth semester men from EE, IE, ME, Chem Eng, Physics, and Chemistry. West Penn Power Co., November 18 and le, eighth semester men in EE and ME. Monongahela Connecting Railroad Co., Novem ber 22 and 23, eighth semester men in CE. Pennsylvania Railroad, November 23, eighth semester men in EE and ME. United States Civil Service Commission, Novem ber 23, eighth semester men in Aero Eng, Arch Eng, CE, EE, lE, ME, Sanitary Eng, Metallurgy, Petroleum & Natural Gas Eng, Chent Eng and Chemistry. Babcock & Wilcox Co., November 22, eighth semester men in lE, ME, Fuel Tech, and Metal lurgy. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., November 30, eighth semester men in CE, EE, IE, ME, Chown Eng, and Chemistry. Philadelphia Electric Co.. December 1, eighth semester men in EE and ME. North American Aviation Corp., November 30, eighth semester men in Aero Eng, Civil Eng, EL, and ME. Douglas Aircraft Co., December 2 and 3, sev enth and eighth semester men in Aero Eng, EE, ME, and Physics. J. C. Penney Co., December 2 and 3, eighth se mester men in IE, C&F, Arts & Letters, Adver tising, Education, Hotel Adm., Ind. Ed., Pit y - chology. Ingersoll-Rand Co.. December 2 and 3, aevienth semester men in If, ME and EE. -Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., December 3, eighth semester men in lE, ME and C&F. . Student Employment Contact Mr. Atka Room TUB Men interested in restaurant work at night. Substitute waiters and dishwashers. Experienced clothes presser. Men with upholstery experience. Man or woman with experience as a desalt assistant. Gads las stacking. --Name withheld.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers