PAGE TWO Tlie Daily Collegian Editorial Page Kdituriala and columna appearing in The Daily Collegian represent the aplnlooi ot Ilia writer. They make no data to reflect etndent or Ontrerelty eeneenaua. Unalmed edltorlale are Wfittea Oy the adltegk " Unfraternal Conduct" Probably never has the pledging of an indi vidual by a fraternity received so much national publicity and editorial comment as that of Thomas Gibbs by the Amherst chapter of Phi Kappa Psi. Tom Gibbs is a Negro, the first of his race ever to be pledged by Phi Psi. Some day, such a pledging and initiation won’t be any more newsworthy than the tapping of Ne groes by Penn State honoraries is and has been for a number of years. Yet for “unfraternal conduct” the National Ex ecutive Council of Phi Kappa Psi suspended its Amherst chapter, which courageously became a local fraternity, Phi Psi, and proceeded with the initiation of Tom Gibbs. Tom Gibbs as a freshman was the number three man on the cross-country squad, and a member of t.he freshman council. Pie did a good job on the freshman dance committee. His popularity was proven by the fact that this fall he was one of three sophomores elected to the student council not as a candidate, but on write-ins. His fraternity brothers had a right to pledge him. They did so on the basis of his character, intelligence and personality. They did so unani mously, and unanimously reaffirmed their de cision in the face of certain suspension from the fi'-tional. On the basis of brotherhood in its highest sense, a brotherhood which realizes that ail men are brothers, which judges individuals on their own merits and which does not categorically condemn those with superficial, surface differences, the Am herst Phi Psi’s have been many times more “fra ternal” than their elders. (To clarify my personal status, I am not against fraternities or the fraternity system, even though T chose to remain independent. This editorial is neither an attack on fraternities nor a demand that they all immediately pledge Negroes.) A New York Times editorial neatly summarizes our firm conviction in the words, “There is a spirit of racial and religious tolerance walking the cam pus these days that will not be indefinitely denied. National offices are out of step with undergrad uate sentiment, when they deny to local chapters the right to pledge whomever they please.” Collegian Gazette Tuesday, December 7 PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 204 Burrowes, 7 p.m. LIBERAL ARTS STUDENT COUNCIL, 410 Old Main, 6:30 p.m. MEN’S BRIDGE CLUB, Pub, 7 p.m. WRA FENCING, 1 WH, 7 p.m. WRA BRIDGE, WH Playroom, 7 p.m. WRA BOWLING, WH, 6:15 p.m. College Placement Boy Scouts of America, December 7 and 8, eighth semester men interested in working as field executives. Institute of Textile Technology, December 10, oventh and eighth semester men in Chem Eng’ ' 'hem, Commercial Chem, Physics, and ME. Joy Manufacturing Co., December 13 and 14 eighth semester in EE and ME. Should have in clination for design and development in heavy machinery. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., December 14, eighth semester men, accounting. Army Security Agency, December 13 and 14, ■ ighth semester students in EE. Hagan Corp., December 15 and 16. eighth semes ter men in EE, ME, Sanitary Eng, Ceramics, Chem Eng, and Chem. Long Island Lighting Co., December 18, eighth emester, in EE and ME for public utility work. Piaseck Helicopter Corp.. December 17, eighth semester men in AE and ME. Supplee-Wills-Jones Milk Co., December 17 ighth semester men in Dairy Husbandry. Sperry-Gyroscope Co., December 13, eighth se nester, EE, interested in communications. Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Co., December 16 ■ “ighth semester ME, EE, Mining Eng, Architec tural Eng. CE. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., December 16, eighth emester, lE, EE. ME, Chem Eng, and Ceramics. Training program in industrial engineering. Wili lead to factory technical assignments. Few open ngs m maintenance. At the Movies CATHAUM—Three Musketeers. STATE—Red River. NITTANY—Naked Fury. Saily Collegian SucrcMor (o THE FREE LANCE, ut, 1887 Published Tuesday through Saturday morning* inclusive dur ng the College year by the staff of The Daily Collegian of The ' onnsylvania State College. Entered aa second class matlfv Tilly 5. 11*34 et the State College. Pa.. Poet Office under the •et of March 3. 1b79. Subscriy ions -12 a semester. $4 tbt *rhooJ year Lew Stone Editor Managing Ed.. Elliot Shapiro; News Ed., Malcolm White; Sports Ed.. Tom Morgan; Edit. Dir. Arni Gertoit; Feature Ed.. Jo Fox; Society Fd., Frances Keeney; Asst. Soc. Ed.. i<or*tts Neville; Photo Ed.. Hetty Gibbons; Promotion Mgr.. Seims /mofsky; Senior Board, Claire Lee. STAFF THIS ISSUE Managing Editor News Ktlilor _ Copy Editor Assistants . __ Ad Manager Assistant* Business Manager Vance C. Klepper Rad Roth . Jack Senior Janie Hchwins Janet Conston George Seibert Donald Baker .... Eloist Cook Robert Clarke In the Land of Jim Crow Ray 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 fellow Americans. This is the eleventh 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. Strangely enough, the Negro in the South doesn’t hate the white man. It could well be that my four weeks as a Negro in the deep South falls grievously short in equipping me as an authority on the subject. But I’ll still stand on my opinion. Remember that I talked at length with the real leaders of the Negro—not all of them by any means—but with scores of them in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. They are the men on the firing line who are battling for Negro rights and Negro pro gress where it’s dangerous to do it. They are the local heads of the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People— ministers, business men, college professors, doctors, lawyers, school teachers, Negro plantation owners, men of substance and in fluence in their own communities among both whites and blacks. I wasn’t a white man inter- Corner Rumors Lest We Forget . . . the Sunday afternoon seven years ago when the announcer cut into our consciousness with the knife-like an nouncement that Tojo’s boys had sent our yuletide gift in advance . . . screaming headlines . . . “Pearl Harbor Bombed!” . . . you knew it was a big event for they even dismissed high school the next day . . . and Mom started to cry when they broadcast the Congressional session called to formally declare war ... a little box in the corner of the evening edition blushingly reminded, “Fourteen shopping days to Christmas.” . . . The last Christmas dinner at home for a while. . . . You’d remember “Adeste Fidelis” at the church . . . and the headlines, ‘“FLAG STILL FLIES OVER CORREGIDOR’ — WAINWRIGHT.” You Call Everybody Sweetheart It’s not Spring, but "Honk” Altman’s fancy has turned from the mass production of airplanes in California, to mass manufacture of “sweet nothings.” Last week about 30 post cards arrived at the Kappa Kappa Gamma house inscribed with variations on the theme: “I love you madly. You are the only girl I miss at Penn State,” signed by the ’4B aero graduate. It was a warm and woolly weekend for Dree Epley, Alpha Chi pledge, and Joe Burgess, Alpha Tau Omega, who won the AOPi and Kappa Alpha Theta sweaters, respectively. Bill Rumbaugh, Alpha Sigma Phi, won the Theta consolation prize, a pair of argyles. . . . Charlie Judge, Sigma Phi Epsilon, leaves February 15 for a job in Venezuela. Chuck will graduate from Mineral Industries, and leave the States with the knowledge of one word in Spanish, “Servecis.” The Power of a Woman And the sophomore elections prove you should never underesti mate it. Barb Niesley, vice-president, and Lois Kenyon, secretary treasurer, both won over male opponents. Maybe a female class presidential nominee is the next progressive step in campus politics. Br Ray Sprigle viewing them, remember. I was a Negro from the North, a friend of Walter White, executive sec retary of the NAACP.- I was a guest in their homes. We sat hours over their dinner tables. I slept in their guest rooms. We were just a group of Negroes talking things over. Solid Basis for Hatred Frankly, why the Negro doesn’t hate the Southern white is a mys tery to me. Give me another couple of months, Jim Crowing it through the South —forever alert never to bump or jostle a white man—careful always to “sir” even the most bedraggled specimen of the Master Race—scared to death I might encounter a pistol-totin’ trigger-happy drunken deputy sheriff or a hysterical white woman—and I’m pretty sure I'd be hating the whole damned white race. It seems to me that the intelli gent Southern Negro has realized (Continued on page threei By Jo Fox TUESDAY. DECEMBER 7. 1941 I"Jlie Safety, \fatve Our Own Back Yard TO THE EDITOR: The editorial page of the December 3 issue of the Collegian had a significant layout. The center columnn had the article “In the Land of Jim Crow,” by Ray Sprigle, who did a swell job in his series of articles presenting many facts of the degrading conditions of Negro citizens in the South because of racial prejudice incited by Bilbo type bigots. Such conditions in the South are clearly reflected in the North, but in a more subtle form. Thus, Penn State, while it may boast of having once rejected the invitation of a South ern university to a football game, with the condi tions that our College should not send our Negro players, neglects to solve its problems of anti- Negro prejudice in its own back yard. The columns at either side of Ray Sprigle’s col umn gave the opinion of what should be done with Jim Crowism in Penn State. The third column of the page written by R. Cover, presented a clear cut and logical statement of the weakness of CORE’S approach to the problem of barber shop discrimination in State College, and strongly ad; vocating for; a “vigorous boycott.” But this actfpn, according to the Editor who wrote the first column of the Editorial page, is “customarily the tool of militant minorities.” This latter statement is a typical paasing-the buck reasoning when lacking sufficient under standing of a problem. “A boycott would only an tagonize barbers,” wrote the Editor; haven’t we antagonized the barbers yet? And this is precisely what mostly worries the Editor. He presumes that there is a degree of antagonism from the v ps*t of the barbers which we should be careful not to incite. Where that degree is, God only knows, I don’t nor does the Editor. To the Editor, a picket line is no force of public opinion; what is it then? Blood running down Allen St. as on a rainy day? Or just that blessed degree that “would antagonize barbers”? A picket line is a demonstration of (disapproval that goes hand in hand with a boycott, or a “true boycott,” as the Editor calls it. Are teachers “mili tant minorities” because they used picket lines to protest against low salaries? Are workers mili tant minorities because they use picket lines to protest against low wages and bad working con ditions? Would the student body of Penn State be a militant minority because of using a picket line to protest against Negro discrimination m the bar ber shops of State College? • To clarify the edilor's stand on picksting barber shops, it should be emphasised that our father is not a barber, nor do we own any bar ber shop stock. Our policy is based on the firm conviction that a picket line would serve only to increase lb* barbers* adamance, and that if, in desperation, they were forced to cease discrimination, that they would do so only on the surface. Remaining hostile and unwilling, many bar bers would continue to vent their spile by means of sloppy haircuts and subtle rudeness. To end barber shop discrimination in spirit as well as in appearance, all barbers must be taught to believe in the rights of persons regard less of color, and to realise that eliminating dis crimination . will not damage their business in the slightest. It's a Waste TO THE EDITOR: Why does the Daily Col legian continue to waste valuable space by pub lishing letters of complaint about the Nittany Dining Hall food disgrace when we all know that there is no remedy? Mr. P. B. Noll’s gripes printed in the December 2 issue were entirely legitimate, but since none of the authorities seem to care, the consumption of newsprint is useless. It appears that the food situation is a deliberate attempt to cheat the veteran residents, and com plains to the legitimate authorities have brought nohing but sneers and apathy. The Nittany sub scirbers have no hope of ever receiving any more than third-rate, poorly prepared meals. Signs Won't Work TO THE EDITOR: Before any committee can decide for the entire student body which sites are legitimate or illegitimate for walks, We would like to know what studies have been made. You con cluded that new walks were not appropriate in front of Carnegie Hall and the Veterans'Admin istration. From the muddy paths the students have been blazing, it is very obvious that this busy traffic artery is a legitimate site for a wide con crete plaza. If you want to save the grass, it down to the Smithsonian Institute. Ugly signs and fences will not stop the students. (They only tend to trip the transgressor.) Well designed grassy areas are an attractive feature on any campus; but, unfortunately, many plots on Penn State were never designed (juat lined on axes). They are “traffic bottlenecks." Any plan the committee adopts should work with the natural behavior and tendencies of the students. The present right angle regimented walks are not what we need, and we will continue to oppose them. Remember, grass and concrete are attractive and have specific uses, let’s use them logically for a better Penn State. —Sigmund Wail. —Joseph Winton. —David Winton. —William Geiqer. —Thomas DeCoursey. —Harris Sa*4w*
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers