PAGE FOUR
Editorial Opinion
It Can Happen Again
A coed was abducted about 9:15 p.m. Sunday while
she was walking along College Ave. She blacked out when
taken into a car and found herself sitting on the library
steps half an hour later.
Three incidents of men trying to lure coeds into cars
were reported over the weekend. Over' the years there
have been many incidents of men attempting to abduct
or attack coeds. Most have not been made public. Un
doubtedly a good number have not been reported even
to the police.
A 17-year-old freshman named Rachel Hutchinson
Taylor returned by bus from the spring recess on March
28, 1940, and began walking from the bus stop to Atherton
Hall.
Her mutilated body was found the next morning in
the driveway of the College Township School, Lemont,
The murder remains unsolved.
There is no reason to believe that a coed walking
alone at night is less subject to murder, rape or kidnapping
today than 18 years ago.
Perhaps if more of the incidents of attempt were re
ported to the public, coeds would be more aware of the
very real danger they face. Perhaps if the campus were
better lighted, they would be safer.
But Penn State at night can be a desolate place. It is
an elementary measure of self-protection for coeds not
to walk about campus or town alone at night.
Sound Versus Seats
Eleanor Roosevelt will come to campus on Jan. 7,
and she'll speak in Schwab Auditorium. That's been
settled, but not without some controversy.
There are a number of people who thing Mrs. Roose
velt, the first speaker in the new Lecture Series, should
give her talk in Recreation Building.
Mrs. Roosevelt is a world-famous figure, and the Rec
Building partisans reason that more students than can be
seated in Schwab should be given a chance to hear her.
But then others say that the acoustics in Rec Building
aren't good enough for a successful lecture. Also, there
has been some talk that Rec Building is not an appropriate
setting for Mrs. Roosevelt's talk.
There's been another argument advanced in favor of
holding the talk in Schwab—a rather far-fetched one.
This is that there should be a good showing for this, the
first in the series, and that it would be better to have to
turn students away from Schwab than have Rec Building
not completely filled.
This is poor logic, although the members of the Lec
ture Series can make only an educated guess at the num
ber of persons who will show up at the lecture.
The lecture happens to be scheduled for a week which
also includes two intercollegiate athletic showings and the
visit 01 the Finnish gymnasts.
But the decision has been made, and the acoustics and
setting have been chosen over the increased capacity.
Tickets can be picked up beginning Jan. 5, the Mon
day after the end of the Christmas vacation. Interested
students should make sure they're there early in the morn
ing if they plan to get seats.
Fifty-four Years of Student Editorial Freedom
atle Battu Citlegtatt
Successor to The Free Lance, est 1887
Published Tuesday through Saturday morning during the University year. This
Daily Collegian is a student-operated newspaper. Entered as second-class matter
July S. 1931 at the State College, Pa. Past Office under the act of March 3, 1079.
Mail Subscription Price: 13.00 per semester 15.00 per year. •
ROBERT FRANKLIN
Editor 44CV4°'
City Editor, David Fineman: Managing Editor. Richard Wayne; Sports Editor,
Lou Prato; Associate Sports Editor. Matt Mathews: Personnel and Public Relations
Director. Patricia Evan*: Copy Editor. Lynn Ward: Assistant Copy Editor. Dick
Fisher: t'hotography Editor Robert Thompson.
Credit Mgr., Janice &kith: Local Ad Mgr.. Tom Hockey: Aut. Local Ad Mgr 4
G Mcl'urk; National Ad Mgr.. Betsy Brachial; Promotion Mgr.. Kitty•fine
gert: Personnel Mgr., Mickey Nash: Classified Ad Mgr., Rae Water*: Co.
Circulation Mara.. Mary Anne First and Murray Simon; Research and Records
Mgr.. Mary IG•rbein: Office Secretary. Mile Johnson.
STAFF THIS ISSUE: Night Editor, Diane Dieck; Wire Editor. George French;
Cony Editor, Carol Blake+lee: Amiatants. Elaine Miele. Amy Rosenthal, Judi Whar.
ton. John Slack. Meryl dueracelc. Zandy Slosson, Fat Vargo. Karen Boiler. Conti*
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THE DAILY COLLEGIAN STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
ROBERT PICCONE
Business Manager
Letters
Reader Attacks
Karn's Letter
TO THE EDITOR: On Saturday
last, I happened to read in the
columns of your paper a letter
to you written by a student, Mr.
William Karn. I was somewhat
surprised by the vituperative lan
guage, the trenchant expressions
and the voice of anger against a
whole race.
Mr. Karn probably has some
reasons to be angry but I wonder
whether a student with that cali
bre which he has for graduate
studies can make generalizations
without going into further con
sideration of the subject.
It seems to me that his thesis
is: Women are inferior to men.
I agree with Mr. Karn that we
must admit differences where
they exist, but I do not agree that
the genius of the woman is in
ferior to that of man. When we
are making generalizations, I
think we should not take excep
tions among one sex as Shakes
peare, Leonardo de Vinci and
Beethoven, and feel that each one
of us is therefore superior to all
women.
If there have been some genius
es among men, we must remem
ber that nature has, compensated
it with innumerable instances of
Idiocy, madness and stupidity.
Otto Jespersen, after careful re
search comes to this conclusion:
Genious is more common among
men by virtue of the same gen
eral tendency by which idiocy is
more common among men.
I feel that intelligence is not
the prerogative of any particular
sex. It is a gift which improves
with opportunity, and given the
same opportunity women can be,
and have shown to be, often su
perior to most men.
While teaching in India (I
taught for several years at dif
ferent levels in the University),
I had noticed that invariably
women showed a capacity for
more earnest and industrious
work in intellectual fields and
were often better in intellectual
feats than their male counter
parts. But what mattered in fur
thering their studies was a lack
of opportunity—due to such fac
tors as marriage and others.
I agree with Mr. Kern that we
must be less materialistic and
have less of the acquisitive in
stinct.
Men may not acquire things for
themselves but I have a secret
feeling that they acquire them to
turn them over to women so that
they may keep them ready for
them (men) when they need those
acquisitions again!
V —K. S. Narayana
Gazette
TODAY
Association of Independent Men,
• 7 p.m., 203 HUB
American Rocket Society, 7 p.m.,
105 ME
ASAE, 7 p.m., 206 Ag. Eng.
Camera Club. 7:30 p.m., 212 HUB
Chess Club, 7 p.m., '7 Sparks
Delta Phi Alpha, Christmas meet
ing, 8 p.m., 419 W. Maple-Ave.
DOC Student Council, 8 p.m., 218
HUB
DOC elections, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. HUB
Cardroom
Leadership Training, 7 p.m., 119
Osmond
Nittany Grotto, 7 p.m., 121 M.I.
Psychology Club, 7 p.m., 111
Boucke
Student Government Reorganiza
tion Committee, 5 p.m., 203 HUB
Women's Chorus. 6 p.m., Assem
bly Hall
Joanna Apulia'. Kenneth Colbank, Fred•
erick Deak, James Dean. Judith Douglass,
Barbara Greenwald, Jeffrey Hardy, An
drew Jordan, Donald Kamenetsky, Althea
Leslie, Terrence Madden, Anthony S. Mor
timer. Judith Muskat, Terry Ritter Caro
lyn Shustick, Walter Smithson, Barbara
Spratt. Fred Waltman, Nancy Israel. Ar
nold Marbles.
Coed Abducted--
(Continued from page one)
was back in class yesterday.
The borough police have been
investigating the occurrence as
well as similar inci4nts which
have occurred recently in the'
HUB parking lot. The first, re
ported on Friday. involved a
girl whom a man tried to lure
into his car. Two other such
incidents followed over the
weekend.
Since there are no actual iden
tifications, however, the police
have almost nothing to help them
in the search.
ittle Man on Campus by Dick . Sibiu
"Well, this college is known for•its very friendly,
Words to Spare
Want Improved TV?
Turn Off the Set
By Dick Drayne
A few years ago one of the country's big television
networks had as its director one of the most intelligent
and imaginative men the medium has seen in its short
history. This director had a very sensible theory about
television: that it had an obligation to present intelligent
entertainment, professional in
production and worthwhile in
content
For a few years he raised
the standards of the network
higher than it had ever been
before, or has been since. His
leadership fostered good dra
ma, TV adaptations of Broad
way shows, stimulating news
and public events programs.
"He was gradually shaping
his network—and by virtue of
competition also other net
wo r k s--to the standards of
taste he thought It should oh.
serve.
And so, for his efforts, he
was fired.
The ambitious ideas of this
top-flight director, it seemed,
required too much money.
Sponsors weren't willing to
foot the cost of his shows, and
so he lost his job. He was a
victim of the "vicious triangle"
that has all but killed any ar
tistic values in television.
The triangl e? Networks,
sponsors and the public. No
one is willing to take any re
sponsibility for making televi
sion worthwhile, and so it
sinks downward, Season after
season, dragging the tastes of a
discouraging portion of the na
tion with it.
The networks have the facil
ities to raise the standards,
but they say they haven't the
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1958
helpful faculty:.
money. The sponsors have the
money, but they have no im
petus. The public could pro
vide the impetus, but it would
rather take what it's getting
and learn to like it.
What's needed, apparently.
is a lithe cooperation. But this
doesn't seem likely either.
The networks don't want to
recognize their obligations to
provide something worthwhile
for viewers. And the sponsors
don't want to realize that the
quality of the programs reflect
on the - quality of the sponsors.
But if the public refused to
follow the parade of compla
cency, TV's sad story would
soon brighten.
If , people would begin to
turn off their TV sets when
they realized they weren't be
ing entertained—or that they
were being insulted—the rat
ings would drop and things
would happen fast.
Sponsors and networks can
take the critics raps as long as
the ratings are high; but when
the viewing public starts ,to ig
nore a program, the men be
hind the scenes start doing
some fast thinking. Flip the
set off often enough and pro
grams will improve in a hurry.
And who knows, people
might even discover they like
their living rooms with the
lights on.