FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1968 • ' . • ; s 1 ' • " t , di s • " co , " • Letter to the Collegian .E „., Uo From Slavery Not So Easy • TO THE EDITOR: I also strongly support the black students from the Douglas Association who had enough courage and healthy self-respect to voice their discontent to the proper University authorities. My purpose in writing is to vocalize my support and to indicate how I feel two of the Letters to the Editor in Wednesday's Collegian fell far short of a proper attitude and perspective toward the racial situation. ' The two letters in question evidenced the atti tude that the Negroes' status in society is and has been no different from that of such minority groups as Italians and Polish.lf is true that, when the Italian and Polish immigrants first came to this country, they were discriminated against and occupied the lower rungs of society. It is also true that these immigrants were later accepted as equals because they had proved their unmistakable worth to society, mainly through hard work. I likewise believe that much bootstrapping and self-initiated constructive ac tion are necessary for the black community to "deserve" acceptance by the American society. However, self-help is hardly sufficient to elevate a people from slavery to social equality. To put it simply, "up from slavery" is not as easy as "up from poverty." Historically the whites are responsible for forcibly bringing the Negroes as a group to this country. Therefore, I contend that whites as a group are morally responsible, at least partially, for resolving the racial issue now. If, for no other reason, each_ white person should be very con cerned about the plight of the black race because of the ominous threat to our cities this summer. That in' itself should be motivation enough for any white person to become actively and construc tively involved. Let me clarify a few points. I do not neces sarily fully support the methods that the black students employed in accosting Charles L, Lewis. In fact, I suspect that the motives of the mem bers of the D.A. are not untainted by racist feel ings. There are always two sides to any- issue and I believe that the finger must be pointed at both whites and blacks in locating the blame for the present racial strife. Furthermore, I do not fully support all of the 12 demands that the D.A. presented—but I do believe that some special consideration must be given to the black community by the University for the sake of social betterment in general. Of course, the acceptance of some poorly qualified black students into the University must be coupled by some remedial program to prevent a wholesale flunkout. The University must recognize the initial con ditions of the problem in order to arrive at a work able solution. Solving Racial Problem? TO THE EDITOR: I would like' to make a few brief comments concerning the demands presented to Dr. Lewis by the Douglas Association. Just why do our Negro students propose a separate section in Pattee? Do they expect the library to change its carding system so that books are carded according to color or nationality? If not, why should the library discriminate against Negro authors by placing them in a special sec tion? The Douglas Association shmild also note that applications for admissions do not require those applying to indicate race. The application is based on determining ability, not color. It must be then that either the Negroes who apply are lacking in ability, or that they do not apply due to conditions at Penn State, conditions not cor rected by the list of demands presented to Dr. Lewis. _ . We cannot accept Negroes simply to create a racial balance. It's then a, case_ of discriminating against other qualified people. If the Negro would like a scholarship for Ne groes, then let them endow it; it is not the right of the University to discriminate against me by taking money to benefit one specific group of students. The Douglas Association also demanded a Ne= gro literature course. - Do they propose that it be required? If so, why should the University dis criminate against other minorities and not offer courses concerning them that would also be re-• qui - ed, so that we could all have majors -in mi nority literature. - The Douglas Association should re-evaluate its list of demands and ask if the demands really solve the racial problem at Penii State. or simply create more. problems Uninvolved Student Govt. TO THE EDITOR: In the past several days a strange (no, foreign) thing has hit the Penn State community: controversy. For three days- students have been discussing an issue. The Collegian's let ters column has been filled with reactions and re reactions to the discussion of the black students' demands. , • There were the demands, then repheS, satiric, The Sisters & Pledges of _Al p ha -S ) i g ma Al p ha wish to congratulate their sister Denise Le Mar for being chosen Star & Crescent Queen of Kappa Sigma Fraternity $2.00 Clip and Use $2.00 This Coupon Worth 48 $2,00 .v. I 4 ei 0 vv. Towards Any Watch Overhaul from May 14th to May 25th 8 v ersity . -to 4 . 40 1,ers t 3 17 1 ; $2.00 %° $2.00 8 $2.00 Clip and Use $2.00 SUNDAY VVORSHIP Methodist EISENHOWER CHAPEL 11:15 - a. rri , - • James Gray, Graduate Walter R.- Loder '7O Italian power ultimatums, the "joy-ride-is-over, whitey" stv.tzments, and the "don't-push-me-nig ger" threats. In addition to letting these comments get out of hand, the Collegian has encouraged them with editorials and page one coverage. And even the Administration has added to The pandemonium by issuing one of its not too frequent statements, hinting that they might cede that segments of the student body are cap able of thought: Vice-President for Student -Con trol. Charles Lewis clarified his "contaminated" statement, revealing that "Harlem is not adjacent to the campus." It is heartening. to note that, amidst this hor rible furor, one campus agency has refrained from kindling the fire. It is none other than that keeper of the student's trust, the group that is "not objectionable to anyone." USG. According to a spokesman, all the members of Penn State's student government have been so busy with other matters, no one has found time to comment on this issue. After all. USG can't be expected to deal with something just because a minority of 200 black students have provoked discussion among every one else. Right? In its wisdom, USG has remained silent, per haps to tackle this insignificant problem at a more opportune moment. Maybe this summer. Yes, it's reassuring to know that there is still one restrained group on campus. Congratulations to Penn State's Uninvolved Student Government. Jay Grossman, Graduate • Solution Lies in Harr i s burg TO THE EDITOR: Judging by the comments in this paper, it appears that there is little under standing of the petition of the Douglas Associa tion. Should we not place this plea in a larger perspective than University Park? . De facto segregation is a fact of life ill Penn sylvania's publicly financed higher education. The confrontations at Cheyney and Penn State repre sent a demand that this Commonwealth fulfill its obligation to assist young blacks in the rea lization of their individual and collective po tentials. By maintaining a second-class educational facility at Cheyney our politicians presume to meet their obligations; the people from the ghettos of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia know otherwise. They are demanding, above all, a quality education: they are no longer satisfied with such substandard opportunities. While applauding the recently announced project "Upward Bound", it must be realized that given the nature of public higher education in Pennsylvania, no action by Penn State's Adminis tration can come fully to grips with the problem. Larger socio-economic factors inhibit a local solu tion. The facts are that next year it will cost even more to come and live here than it does now, making it extremely difficult for the bulk of black youths to attend this institution. Financial aid from state sources under PHEAA does not really reach such prospective students thanks to the biases and politics built into that program. In short, the en tire structure of Pennsylvania's publicly supported higher education is founded on hypocrisy. The Douglas Association seems to have stolen a page from Hamilton and Carmichael's Black Power in their effort to dramatize this absurdity. Their objectives should not be condemned by a literal interpretation of the twelve points of their suit. Their purpose here has been to force this in stitution—its students, faculty and administra tion—to define its future course: they have made it clear that they will not serve as "showcase Negroes" to salve our consciences. They have brought the problems of Black America here and they deserve an honest answer both here and elsewhere. For myself. I feel the immediate solution lies in Harrisburg. Only there can de facto segregation be met and dealt with. It is up to the Governor and the General Assembly to realize that public higher education in Pennsylvania must be com mitted to social justice. Jacob W. Kipp, Graduate In the Blacks' Interests TO THE EDITOR: The demands presented by the Douglas Association is a reflection of one of two things. Either the Black community at Penn State is unable to find real problems which exist within the University, or else there are no significant issues. I cannot believe that the latter is so, and there fore I am forced to look on the Douglas Associa tion with some regret. It was in their power to attack meaningful issues which permeate the Penn State campus and unite the student body behind them. Instead they have accomplished the -impos sible task of division and defeat. If the Douglas AssoCiation stands behind its present demands it will fail. Failure in the sense that even if its demands are enacted they can only be considered totally irrelevant to ending the central problems of prejudice and student sup pression. It would have been infinitely more construc tive if, instead of demanding quotas of Black stu- East Hall's Council Presents "The Palace Jammy " Featuring a Thousand Piece Orchestra and Stuff Like That 9 - 12:30 • 25c Girls Admitted Free 'til 9:30 THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA dents they would of made themselves available to go out and recruit some of the hundreds of Blacks who are academically, and financially capable of attending Penn State and yet do not out of their own choice. Likewise the issue over a course in Negro history misses the point in that they should have demanded that majors and curriculums be es tablished and controlled by professors and students. It then would have been possible to institute a school of African and Asian studies as well as to make constructive changes in existing areas of study. But the central problem is none of these; it is the use to which researcn money is applied. What is really relevant would be a movement to force government grants to be applied more to the social sciences so that the problems of prejudice and poverty could be adequately studied. Related to this would be the creation of an Institute for Negro Studies which would effectively use stu dents to study the social and political problems of America, Such proposals as these are relevant not only to the Black students but the whole academic and social community. It would thus be in the Black students interest to attend Penn State and at the same time the whole community would benefit. Don't Favor Blacks, Baby TO THE EDITOR: Sure, I'm in favor of equal treatment for all students on this campus. Yester day's editorial argues that wholesale pro-Negro favoritism is one way of immediately "eliminating the effects of 300 years of bigotry." Somehow this one-sided treatment sounds like Goldwater saying extremism in defense of democracy is no crime. The real point is, baby, grossing me out with vulgar sayings on placards won't earn you the respect you need for a cause which is right. Old Chinese saying: "Nothing to excess." J. Garihan, Graduate Negative Efforts, No Results TO TELE EDITOR: Douglas Association If you are striving for integration and equality, why are you trying to promote segregation and hostility? I honestly don't see how negative efforts can bring about positive results. By negative efforts I mean that you are deliberately trying to antagonize the white community and you expect them to reward you for it. Let's face it some of those demands would do you more harm than good. One that sticks out like a. sore thumb is that a section of Pattee Li brary be devoted to black'authors. If this demand isn't outright segregation; I- don't know what is! Another is that a course in' Negro history be of fered as a permanent part of the University's cur riculum. Why? To show how much the Negro people have suffered and holy much they deserve? All the demands concerning. the increase in black enrollment, more - bla'c'k faculty members, more black graduate students,-more black athletes. black coaches, and more literature in English courses can be answered with one statement A University should be concerned with quality, not quantity. Some of your demands are good, as well as interesting. It wouldn't be a bad idea to name a building after the Rey.-Martin Luther King. The entire nation suffered when he died. A Martin Luther King scholarship fund is an excellent idea. There are many qualified Negroes in the country who can't continue their education simply be cause they can't afford it. A rather interesting idea is the introduction of an African culture study program. Douglas Association. please reconsider and re evaluate your strategy if you hope to get anything worthwhile accomplished. Time To Take Action, Not Talk TO THE EDITOR: The cry "Students Arise" is finally being answered at Penn State. Unfortu nately, it's by the smallest minority on campus. The recent abundance of letters to the editor concerning the black demands on campus is so typical of Penn State students it's sickening—all voice, no action! We sit around with pen in hand crusading against such important issues as the IDA which is almost non-existent here. Look at the real problems that face us. Nov is the time for Penn State to emerge from the shroud of apathy that dulls this campus.. It's going to take action my friends—not talk. Some Are Black and White TO THE EDITOR: Under the new, highly efficient "Ethnic Classification System" proposed for, the Library, where do we put Pushkin and Alexander Dumas, both Pere and fils? Or, for that matter, "Yes I Can," by Sammy Davis, Jr.? Steve De Souza '7O (EDITOR'S NOTE: Puihkin's mother was a Negro given to the Czar as a curiosity. She married one of the court nobles later giving birth to the famed writer. Similarly, Alexander Dumas, Pere, was the child of a Haitian and a white noblewoman from the French court.) MIMMEI Alexis Chonios '69 Bob Shuman /0 `Will Penny' Shines Like Brand-New Coin By PAUL SEYDOR Collegian Fibn Critic Of the post-Oscar batch of films, "Will Penny" is the best American movie 'rye seen. The story, written and directed by Tom Gries, tells of Will Penny, an uncouth, un educated, sympathetic cowboy who falls in love with a married woman from the East. The highpoint of Gries's direction in his beautifully, brutally realistic depiction of cowboy life. The highpoint of Gries's script is that he draw s unabashedly up on, indeed, his film seems to be virtually a re capitulation of, several basic themes that run through Ameri can literature. Will himself, for instance, harks to the prototype of the American h e r o, a s exemplified SEYDO by James Fenimore Cooper's various trans mutations of Natty Bumpo in the Leather stocking Tales. Will Is a Loner Like Natty, Will is a loner—tall, silent, a man of the wilderness. The irony of this hero is that he lives outside the mainsteam of the advancing American civilization. He has too long been governed by his own code, has too long traveled his own way, to adapt himself to a change of environment. Thus, Natty keeps moving west; his job it is to find a path, his means of survival, by slaying a deer. Similarly, Will is one of the last of a dying breed of cowboys. When the trail drive is over, he goes his own way, ,avoiding people: his-only concern is to survive the threatening winter. When Will at last finds a new job, it is as a line-rider. He is forced to live in an isolated cabin, where he guards the border of a Ponderosa -type ranch—a metaphor, perhaps, for civilization. The essential difference between Will and Natty is the latter's incapacity for romantic love. Will does fall in love, but, tragically, it happens too late. "I'm almost fifty," he says. "I loved one way my whole life, and know no other." Consequently, he must leave the woman, and run scared, like Natty, from the creeping impingement of civilization. Theme of Violence Philip Young. professor of American lit erature and noted critic, points out that vio lence is an important theme in American literature ("The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The World and An American Myth," from "Ernest Hemingway; A Re consideration"). Will's life, too, is full of violence. But like the American hero he is a Many, wonders undersea will be unlocked —by the energy of progress. That's eledtricity. It lights and powers man's life in places where he couldn't live before—such as in, the search to find liying space beneath the sea., The people of your investor-owned electric light and power company are 'on the job to make your electric service West Penn Power ay , Part of the Allegheny Power System SIR 111111111111111111111111111111M111111M111111111111111111111111111111i11111111M111111111111 1 11 1 1 111111111111111111111111111111111 Clas - sifiett IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiillllllllllllllllllllllilllilfllliifllllli!1111 U== non-violent man. He , :alks away from a fight, if he can. He kills only when his own code of honor tells him that the only alter native in disgrace. ("Grace under pressure," Hemingway once wrote.) Gries sets his story in the poetic frame work of the "spatial concept," as his camera captures the resplendent grandeur and mag nificent ruggedness of the sprawling western plains and mountains. If, for the record, one must set down the weaknesses in the film, he might say that the plot, in an effort to tie together the loose strands of the story, becomes contrived, albeit it, exciting. He might also smile at Gries's inability to resist introducing a stock villain. right out of the fanatic-bible-beaten mold. Yet he might note that this weakness is almost transformed into a virtue due to the satanic zeal with which Donald Pleasence invests the role. Joan Hackett. a fine actress too long ignored. lends a distinctive frontier-flavor to the woman Will comes to love. Blessings, also, to the make-up crew for eschewing the full Hollywood-type treatment of this heroine. But, the real star of this show is Charlton Heston, as Will. If you regard Heston as 'a second-rate actor in third-rate parts, prepare for a pleasant surprise. Heston literally owns this film. There isn't a note he fails to get in tune, a chord he fails to strike with un assailable rightness. an inner voice he fails to illuminate. To cite a specific: There is one scene which, it seems to me, is a poignant summa tion of Will's alienation from American cul ture: the woman asks him to join her and her son in singing Christmas carols. Of course. Will can't. not only because he doesn't know any. but also because he probably never celebrated a Christmas in his life. In this scene, you have only to study the abject, liquid sorrow of his con veyed in Heston's eyes: the utter frustration suggested the perfectly-timed awkward movement of his body; the pathetic eloguence projected through his crush• voice—and you shall witness the goods of which great per formances are made. Or, just listen to the elegiac tenderness Heston calls forth in Will's summation of his life, as he says 2:00H-bye to the woman. Elegiac is, I believe, the best word; for an elegy is what this fi;m is, a memori ,l to the dying subculture of the cowboy, and. with him, a peculiarly American hero. Gres is to be commended for presenting this theme with neither apology nor affectation, but with genuine sympathy and empathy. Although "Will Penny"' is, admittedly, forged from some pretty well-worn alloys, thanks to Heston's conviction and Gries's artistry, the film shines brilliantly, like a 'newly minted coin. 221111 4 er' .« SSSS*-f ' / / • • • • for tomorrow even better than it is today. Research and development, planning, construction. Both here and in other areas served by investor-owned electric companies across the nation, that means dependable, plentiful and low priced electricity. PAGE THREE Frontier Favor As He Says Good-Bye • I • • so r • •
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers