AFTER DISSIDENT students lowered
the American flag on Old Main lawn to
half-staff yesterday, a struggle of wills
ensued. Pulling on one part of the flag's
rope were students trying to raise the flag.
Pulling on the other part of the rope were
students trying to maintain the flag at
half-staff. Neither side could move the
flag, neither really had an advantage.
Similarly, neither side was clearly
right or clearly free of blame. Both had
objectives, and both fought rather bitterly
to see their objective fulfilled.
BUT THE REACTIONARY, right
wing students fought the most, and they
were the most violent they and Univer
sity Security.
We cannot understand why students
who oppose the actions of dissident stu
dents feel compelled to start shouting
matches and fistfights. It is understand
able that they are upset about what often
happens, but if they condemn the leftists
Of Wales Tales and Frat Pins;
Yeah, Ifs the Greeks Again
BY JOHN BRONSON
Collegian Assistant City Editor
Greeks, to some people, are noth
ing more than a band of intellectual
cripples who live somewhere beyond
Beaver Ave.—out there in fratland.
Greeks have been ranted and
raved over r
for their of
fensive habit -
of paint
ing windows
while wars
are being
fought and '
chugging beer
(for fun or
profit—makes
no difference) I
While people
are starving
in East Po-
dunk
BRONSON
Why not criticize the waitresses at
the NCD for their indifference' to the
fact that there is a tse-tse fly plague
in a wild beet pasture in Lapland? It
follows the same :logic.
But let's remove the. argument from
the realm of apple pie, motherhood and
John Wayne. It's absurd to believe that
the Greek system causes indifference
merely because it is the Greek
`Belle de Jour': Dampened Enthusiasm
By PAUL SEYDOR
Collegian Film Critic
After viewing Luis Bunuel's "Belle de Jour"
a second time six months after the .first, I find
my enthusiasm for it has dampened: What I liked
about it most was its technical execution. Though
I harbored serious reservations about the story,
by and large it seemed to me to be dressed about
as well as a story can be dressed in cinematic
wardrobe.
This aspect has suffered only in that the
Cinema I has received a pitifully chewed-up
print, which wreaks
havoc on the editing
and drains much of
the elegant photog
raphy of its lovely
texture. As if that
weren't enough, this.
version is dubbed, an
inexcusable procedure
unless the audience is
illiterate, And if my
ear and memory are
to be trusted, some of
the actors didn't even
do their own dubbing,
including the star SEYDOR
Catherine Deneuve. The acting wasn't very good
in the original, but it's even worse here. (In the
original, part of the fault 'may be Burma's: it is
rumored that he is notoriously lazy "about working
with actors.)
The story is less good than it seemed the
first time. It is about a young wife's sexual fan
tasies and problems, which at first seem to stem
from frigidity until, unknown to her husband,
Letters to the Editor
USG and the NSA Record Club
TO THE EDITOR: The Varrage of double-talk by Tom Ritchey
in Friday's Collegian merely serves as further proof of the
fact that the "solicitation bill" is actually little more than an
attempt to create a legal monopo!y for the NSA record club.
' It is ironic that USG and NSA bureaucrats. the first to
condemn the corrupt practices of the bookstore oligopoly
downtown, have no objection to forming the least desirable fo
form of monopoly, a state monopoly, for the sale of records.
As anyone who has been waylaid several times on the
same day by the same charity will gladly tell you, the various
charities which solicit outright donations sometimes carry
things too far. But the passage of rules designed to give
special favors to friends of USG and to raise funds by
freezing
out competition is disgusting.
Why a racket sucn as NSA should be allowed back on
campus without a vote of the student body is a ouest'on in
itself. When asked about this, one USG official states "We
decided not to let the students vote rn it because they pro
tiably would have voted it down." When the will of the student
body and USG's desire to make a fast buck are in conflict, it
should be apparent to all. who wins.
Donald E. Shultz
6th-business administration-Berwick
Laissez Faire Capitalism
TO THE EDITOR: In reply to a letter printed yesterday about
Mr. Nixon written by Laurey Petkov: I would like to make the
following points.
• First of all, Petkov said that Jefferson, Washington,
Adams and Paine would be considered radicals by our pres ,, nt
government. Undoubtedly they would be, however, not in the
sense Petkov wou'd lave us believe.
Because these four men held the same views as modern
day libertarians and conservatives, i.e.,-severely limited, con-
Emotionalism
The question is whether fraternities,
as social organizations, should take a
stand on such problems as poverty and
A fraternity is a place to live and
people to live with, but it is not a way of
thinking.
It is up to the individuals within each
house to decide for themselves on how
concerned they are going to be over the
problems of the outside world. And this
decision is made on the basis of •the
person being a member of society af
filiation with a fraternity has nothing to
do with it.
If the fraternity houses were closed
down tomorrow, any apathetic brothers
living there would merely become
apathetic students living somewhere else.
The Greeks hardly have a monopoly on
apathy and hedonism. They are only
easier to identify than those who live in
apartments or dormitories.
It's easy to ride through fratland on a
Saturday night and hear the "two, nay,
who's" and see the people partying and
assume that every decadent person nn
the Penn State campus is a Greek and
chugging for all he's worth.
But don't believe it.' Just because a
house is having a party doesn't mean that
every brother is there.
As for the apartment dwellers, they
for their actions, must they feed the fire
by starting additional trouble?
THE REACTIONARIES who are op
posed to the dissidents feel they must be
come involved in the ruckus. They must
always go into the center of the trouble.
But we don't understand this, especially
when the dissident's actions are not bother
ing anyone else.
This was the case when the flag was
lowered yesterday and Wednesday. Emo 7 .
tionalism overcame both groups, and it led
to fistfights and violence.
While one group felt that the Ameri
can flag which their fathers fought for in
World War II was being downgraded, the
other group thought. just as fervently, that
this same flag had been corrupted by ac
tions of the United States today.
A RADICAL fervor overcame both
groups. Both felt compelled to fight for
what they believed right, yet both groups
were wrong.
The SDS supporters could have taken
'Pitiful' Chewed-ii; Print'
she begins working afternoons at a Paris brothel
where she becomes infatuated with a gangster.
He shoots her husband, is later shot dead himself.
Meanwhile, her husband is left paralyzed and
confined for life to a wheelchair.
The theme seems to be an extension of Bunuel's
"Viridiana": the futility of trying to separate the
physical and the spiritual. In "Viridiana" the result
was near-rape and murder; here it is paralysis. I
take the ending to mean that for Severin her mar
riage can at last be "pure" (i.e., sex free), because
her husband can no longer function sexually. Bunuel
may be saying that if the physical and the spiritual
don't co-exist, people aren't whole and are therefore
crippled in one way or another, physically •Or
psychologically. (Notice, for instance, that we leave
Severin content with her fantasies; and that the
ganster was permanently maimed.)
But since the dialogue, the visual imagery and
symbolism, and the surrealistic jokes •and in
businesses are so confused, deliberately ambiguous,
and obviously meaning-laden, "Belle de Jour" is
liable to mean anything. I thoroughly disappreciate
artworks or entertainments • which aim to be jig -saw
puzzles and invite audiences to play pretentious "in
tellectual" games with them. And after sitting
through a few such sessions with friends in New York
City, where sorting out the illusions, memories and
realities of "Belle de Jour" has become this year's
answer to "Last Year at Marienbad," and coming up
with nothing definite or even•very intelligentor releL
vent, I'm especially eager toleave exegisieto4hose
more ingenious.
Rather, I suggest enjoying ."Belle de .
other Bunuel, for the director's bits. and pieces of
mordant humor and clever reversals of :the normal
scheme of melodrama. Bunuel has a reputation for
being intensely unsentimental. He always ridicules
stitutional government and, laissez fare capitalism. They
would be considered; if they were alive today, "right-wing ex
tremists." not left-wing revolutionaries like Petkov.
True. the government has become dictatorial and should
be abolished. However, the American people, so caught up
with the security of the welfare state, which Mr. Nixon sup
ports, will do nothing to free themselves.
Pctkov is really no better than Senator Eastland, whom he
condemns for receiving farm subsidies. Both are collectivists.
Eastland has his farm subsidies. Petkov his collectivist war on
poverty. But if we are to regain our freedom, both must be
repealed.
The only way to freedom and an end to collusion between
big government and big business (headed by liberals like
Henry Ford) is laissez faire capitalism. Any other way will
lead to slave*,
Published Tuesday through Saturday during the Fall, Winter and Spring Terms, end Thursday during the Slimmer
Term, by students of The Pennsylvania State University. Second class postage paid at State College, Pa. 161101.
Circulation: 12,501.
Mall
JAMES B7DoRRIS
Editor
PAGE TWO
have even more opportunities than the
Greeks to indulge in debauchery and I'm
sure they're not all sitting around ponder
ing war and poverty.
It cannot be denied that fraternities
offer a social outlet, as this is one of the
reasons for their existence. However,
there is much more to a fraternity than
the "unending wine and cheese parties
and the ridiculous composite and trophy
raids" that the outsider does not see.
Without trying to sound like an IFC
rush guide, fraternities do, in fact, offer a
sense of kinship and security and provide
the:opportunity to be responsible. Run
ning a house on a $50,000 a year budget is
hardly a job for a group of mindless
idiots.
In short, the fraternity is nothing
mot* than what each individual puts into
it, for what he gives, he has.
Sure, there are those who are living
in their own little world of crested
jackets, cokes in the HUB and Friday
night..,socials, but you'll find them
anywhere. However, it's not fair to label
the whole fraternity system for the indif
ference of a few.
It is not the Greek system that molds
an individual. And it is not up to the
system itself to be concerned with pro
blems outside of its scope, but to the in
dividuals within the system who are act
ing as people not as Greeks.
Thomas A. Claycomb
9th-theatre arts-arts and architecture
Timothy S. Rogers
3rd-business administration-Emporium
Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887
tl (Enitrulan
; 64 Years of Editorial Freedom
Mail Subscription Price: 512.00 a year
ling Address Box 467. State College, Pa. 16801
4ilV,. PAUL BATES
Business Manager
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1969
Editorial Opinion
Leads to
advantage of the proper administrative
channels to request the lowering of the
flag. Even if their request were denied, it
would have been to their advantage to try
the channels.
• -
,When black students lowered the flag
Winter Term on the anniversary of the
death of Malcolm X, they made requests
to the Administration for permission to
lower the flag. Their requests were denied,
but at least they had been made.
. AND ACCORDING to Charles L.
Lewis, vice president for student affairs,
it was after the blacks- lowered the flag
that administrative officials formulated a
policy a policy which resulted in the
arrest of a University student yesterday.
It is, rather simply, against the law to
break the locks on the University's flag
poles and lower• the flag.
And we feel that the half-staffers over
used the Berkeley murder as a confronta
tion tactic. The dissidents- were trying to
show that what happened at Berkeley
his characters' altruistic motives, showing their good
deeds come to naught simply because there's so
much evil in the world, For a while, it's fun and
liberating to laugh with equal abandon at the efforts
of good and bad.
. But Bunuel often goes so far out of his way to
avoid sentimentality that he bumps into it from the
other directiOn, Notice that he is always careful
to protect his cynical characters (like the couple's
misanthropic friend here), that is, to protect himself.
He will never reach the level of, say a Shaw because
he doesn't seem able or perhaps lacks the courage to
work in the opposite way: presenting a positive moral
stance, conviction, or criticism without making an
ass of himself. He eases the creative burden by
never committing himeslf to anything. Thus, he
can scorn but can not be. scorned.
It's the approach of a sophist, and the fallacies
show in other ways. He can not, I have read, tolerate
people who think his movies beautiful; and once call
ed those who thought "Un Chien Andalou," (an early
film in which he showed a razor blade slicing
through an eyeball) exquisite, a "browd of imbeciles
who find the film beautiful or poetic when it is fun
damentally a desperate and passionate call to mur
der."
This duality is the funniest part 'of the Bunuel
syndrome and is the ultimate refutation of his
outlook: though his movies may picture despair, cor
ruption and ugliness, though they may ask us to drop
the pretense that life is or can be good and
worthwhile, they are, when ail is said and done,
nevertheless brilliant examples of beautiful filmic—
craftsmanship. Well, what I would like to ask is: if
he really believes all that stuff he says, why does he
bother? Isn't a well-executed movie, even if its con
tent is insubstantial, ugly or dumb, a statement of
affirmation, beauty and positive commitment? In
Bunuel, the `medium refutes the message.
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Paper Requests
Faculty Writers
University faculty are in
vitee to submit articles to f;o1.
tegian's "Faculty Forum."
Columns of opinion from an
meir bars of the faculty are
welcome.
The articles should be type
written and triple-spaced and
should not exceed 75 lines in
length. Interested faculty
should bring their articles to
Collegian office, 20 Sackett
Confrontation
could happen here. SDS supporters made
their point Wednesday, and we thought
they were showing constructive cdncern
when it was announced at the SDS meet
ing Wednesday night that the flag would
not be lowered again. ,
BUT THE FLAG was lowered again,
and it was a dangerous move to carry out.
Emotionalism, by that time, had reached
far too high a point.
The situation became more dangerous
when some University officials in the
crowd stood by while students punched
and clawed at each other. While these offi
cials were concerned with seeing that the
American flag was raised to full staff, they
also should have been concerned with in
suring harmony on campus as some of
their fellow administrators were yester
day.
WE HAVE DOUBTED before the sin
cerity of some members of the Adminis
tration in its attempts to avoid student-
Nader Looks for Help
By STEVE SOLOMON
Collegian Staff Write,
Going the route of the Edsel—although
a longer one, strewn with profits as well as
congressional boulders—the last Corvair
rolled off the Chevrolet production line last
week. The event was the finale to a dirty
little war between a single man and the
corporate, god of this corner of the universe.
The Corvair's descent into automobile
Valhalla was engineered by Ralph Nader,
the youthful, somber Washington attorney
win, delivered the keynote address for Col
loquy on Tuesday night. In 1965, his' book,
Unsafe at Any Speed, hit Detroit , with the
impact of an 80 mph collision, exposing the
automobile industry, and specifically General
Motors and its Corvair, for conscientiously
producing unsafe cars.
Trying to swat the gnat in its side as
bloodlessly as possible, GM employed de
tectives to stay
on Nader's trail
and investigators
to conduct a
muckraking mis
sion into his per
sonal past. But
far from being
discredited, Na
der later testi
fied. in a! series
of congressional
hearings, calling
the Corvair "the
leading candidate
for the unsafest- SOLOMON
car title" and thus assuring it of an eventual
junkyard burial beside the Edsel and other
unforgettables uncorked by Detroit.
Despite the impact of his expose of the
automobile, and his other forays into the
food industry and coal mining, Nader drew
up his most significant battle lines last
January .when in a 185-page report
_he in
dicted the Federal Trade Commission for
lethargic activity. Not only had he• chal
lenged an arm of the Washington bu
reaucracy, ,but the federal agency with the
broadest responsibilities for consumer pro
tection. In effect, Nader was a general di
recting an attack on his own forces. Those
Sororities:
Prestige, Social Life
By DENISE BOWMAN
Collegian Staff Writer
I am a member of a group known by
some people as "sororitus snob-us."
These people label me as a Villager
wearing, fraternity pin-collecting, social
climbing, air-headed follow-the-crowder. To
these people, I
am, by definition,
a conserva
tive, independ
ent - hating,
stereotype. Know
me, know my
whole sorority.
We are all the
same.
Rubbish!
There used
to be a time,
when sororities
were still very
young, that MISS BOWMAN
women formed secret societies to use their
collective might to strike out a blow for
women's rights. People did not believe that
women had the right, or needed the privi
lege, of a higher eduCation. My own sorority's
history tells of overt demonstrations against
higher education for women. This was par
ticularly true in the South, where many
sororities began.
As sororities grew older, and women were
accepted on college campuses, many of them
turned to such harmful practices as hazing and
pledge-beating most rationalizing that a girl
"appreciates" sisterhood more if she is made
"uncomfortable." Hell Weeks were exactly
that.
Today, virtually every national sorority has
strict sanctions against hazing and pledge
beating. Now, many of them have-had racial
discrimination clauses removed from . their
charters, many of which were instituted after
the, civil war.
In place of childish practices,' constructive
pledge programs are being formed. These pro-
grams stress the higher ideals of college com
munal living: scholarship, responsibility,
student confrontation. But after yester
day's antics, we are convinced that at least
one member of University Security is not
really determined to stop conflict between
students.
Just as it is the duty of a law officer to
defend a criminal from the wrath of a
vengeful public, University officials should
take steps to protect all students, even
those who oppose the University.
A few students also tried to avoid
further conflict yesterday. When tempers
were the hottest, some student leaders
climbed the base of the flagpole and at
tempted to cool the students on both sides.
Even though their attempts proved unsuc
cessful, these students at least tried to ease
tension.
AS A MATTER OF principle, what we
would like to see is a concerned majority
of the American people, sickened by the
hatred and violence that seems to pervade
much of America, determine to legally
have the flag lowered to half-staf.
m • hasis on FTC
forces, however, Nader believed to be turn-
Nader directed much of his attack against
Paul Rand Dixon, the chairman of the FTC,
whom Nader said was attacking big business
and consumer problems with all the un
bridled' ferocity of Ferdinand the Bull. He
charged Dixon, a Democrat, with cronyism,
overresponsiveness to big business, incom
petence, and disregard 'for consumer de
mands. He called for his resignation, an as
sumedly academic request with a Republi
can Administration poised to assume control.
Although both are working in the same
field, Nader and Dixon are poles apart- in
apperance and demeanor. Tall and willowy,
Nader walks with hunched shoulders, his
cheeks drawn and his face somber and ab
siorbed in thought. He is an intense man,
quick and deep with his thoughts.
Dixon is a cigar-smoking Tennessean,
' chunky and gray-haired with,Ben Cartwright
sideburns. He appears the caricature of a
drawling Mayor Daley.
Dixon, having so-far survived the White
House turnover, takes the Nader report in
stride. In an interview with this reporter
last month, he said the investigation into
the FTC attempted to - prove a preconceived
notion that the agency has been lax in its
duties and big business unfair to consumers.
"Businessmen love this country as much
as Ralph Nader," he said.
While that may be 'true, it's doubtful
that they love the 200 million consumers
who live in this conutry. Not when they
- engage in price-fixing, pedal inferior 'food
and goods, and sell , cars that have the dis
turbing habit of leaving the road.
Nader obviously felt a certain degree of
satisfaction last week when GM closed down
- shop on the Corvair. He had challenged one
of the meccas of the American economy and
won: Yet it is more significant that he now
considers this an isolated victory; that he is
now making a bid for aggressive allies in
Washington, where the statutory powers lie.
He needs an FTC with fangs, some troops
with consumer-enforcing firepower.
"I hear that President Nixon will replace
Dixon in September," Nader said after his
Colloquy address. '
Then he climbed into a car, his brown
crewcut top touching the roof. He had some
investigating to do in the meantime.
More Than
personality development, personal integrity and
many others. Instead of asking a pledge what
her big sisters' mothers' middle name is, they
are asked the purpose of their national
philanthropic project.
It is true that, as a body, sororities do not
take a stand on the merits of widening College
Ave. They do not because They can, not. They
can not because, believe it or not, there are, too
many different people with different ideas to
reach a concensus.
It is unfair to say that all sorority women
are apathetic to world issues. There are
sorority women on the Undergraduate Student
Government (one even supported the vigil),
Young Americans for Freedom, Students for a
Democratic Society, Judicial, Student Councils
and The Daily Collegian. They do not return
year after year to these activities because they
need an activity for their sorority. They must
feel they are doing something worthwhile.
Sororities are changing because the rushees
are changing. There was a time when the
sorority with the. biggest "snow job" in rush
got the "best" rushees. Girls who are rushing
now don't ask at what fraternity a sister dates.
Most of the girls classified as "top" rushees
ask questions about the pledging program, the
attitude of the sorority on discrimination in
pledging and what a sorority means to, or has
done, for them.
At Penn State, a girl does not need a
sorority for an expanded social life not with
a three to one ratio: At Penn State, a girl does
not need a sorority for "prestige" not with
80 per cent of the female population being in
dependents. A sorority must oier something
more.
What is it? I can't generalize. The realistic
rushee is aware of the quality of her con
versations in rush. If they are trite or boastful,
the new rushee is repelled. The new rushee
looks for such intangible things as sincerity, at
titude, intelligence, poise.
If all sorority women are status-seeking no
minds, sororities would have died years ago.
But the 'fact remains, sororities are con
sistently filling their quotas in pledging and are
initiating a consistently higher percentage of
pledges.
We must be doing something right. -