The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 56, Ed. 1 Saturday, May 7, 1949 Page: 2 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 21 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THE THRESHER
Various Opinions Have
Several Common Points
• # t v>
lhere seem to be three distinct positions taken by various stu-
dents and groups of students on the question of a freshman indoctrina-
tion program. The letter in the right hand comer of this page
represents one of these stands: Freshman Guidance with enough
hazing to be a "driving force." Two other stands, Orientation rather
than Guidance, and Guidance without hazing, complete the list—
with the possible exception of "all hazing and no guidance"; fortunately
there are few students who will publicly defend such a position, but
unfortunately there are a few more individuals who would participate
if they were given the opportunity.
1 he significant thing about these three majority stands is that
they have a common purpose and include several common points;
the differences are primarily of degree and method of achieving the
common ends. It will be the eventual responsibility of Rice students
to choose between these alternatives, either directly by a referendum
vote or indirectly through Student Association and class elections.
rhe common purpose of these various views are:
• a program designed to introduce new students to the campus,
to acquaint them with campus affairs, and to make them
welcome in the best of* extra-curricular activities on the
campus;
• a program compulsory only in the sense that "every student
(should) be exposed to the program; and
• a program designed to stimulate an interest in student affairs
and develop responsible individuality rather than repress it.
I wo positions have already been discussed, one in this issue and
one in the editorial column of the last issue. It is hoped that some
student will come forward with a discussion of the middle position so
that the entire array of arguments can be evaluated by the student
body and an intelligent decision made when the opportunity presents
itself.
-0-
Rostrum Teams Deserve
Support in First Tilt
1 uesday night at 8 p.m., in rooms 108 and 110, Anderson
Hall, a team of Rice debaters meets a team of debaters from Texas
A & M in the first intercollegiate debate in which Rice has participated
in many years. The four Rice students, Gail Mount, Raymond
l^ankford, Rush Moody, and Jack Lapin, have practiced hard, and
have able and sympathetic assistance from a number of faculty members
during the past few weeks. Of course, all Rice students wish their
learn good luck, and those who ha"e the time will surely turn out
to support their contestants 1 uesday night.
F ormal debating can be a fascinating thing to hear and watch—
especially when the subject in question is pertinent and timely, when
both teams are out to win, and when the teams are of high and nearly
f*qual ability and talent. 1 he subject for debate is stated this way:
"Resolved: 1 hat the Federal Government should equalize education
opportunities in the tax supported schools by means of annual grants."
(In other words, Federal Aid to Education.) This is certainly
a timely and pertinent subject. 1 here can be little doubt that
Owl vs. Farmer will be sufficient incentive to spur the teams on to
do their best. fTie Aggies come to Rice with a high reputation,
and the listeners the past few weeks have constantly been impressed
with Ricfc's debaters. It has all the marks of an auspicious beginning
for the Rostrum.
Rice students should not fail to support their debate team, and
to return the Aggies' new-offering of good will by treating them with
every consideration and offering them the best sort of hospitality
possible. A good and appreciative crowd will aid the debaters, and
will help insure Rice's team a hospitable welcome on the 18th when
they invade Aggieland for a second match.
SATURDAY EDITION
Managing Editor Finis Cowan
Assistants Werner Grunbaum, Ruey Boone,
7NE K/C£ Q m*(SH£K
Acting Editor Robert Mrflheimy
Editor Brady Tyson
Business Manager Nancy Hood
Assistant Business Manager Tom Smith
Entered as second class mailing; mai
ter, October 17, 1916, at' the Post
Office, Houston, under the act of
March 3, 1879.
Represented by National Advertising
Service, Inc., 420 Madison Ave., New
York City.
Published every Wednesday andevery
Saturday of the regular school year
except during holiday and examination
Deriods by the students of the Rice
institute. Editorial and advertising of*
fices are in the Fondren Library on
the campus.
Truman's Program
Defended by Nad
' by Abe Nad
In Wednesday's issue of the
Thresher a reader presented his
views on "the Administration's farm
program, as presented to Congress
by Agriculture Secretary Brannan.
The first point made in the letter
to the editor was that the program
replaces, the parity formula for farm
supports with a new method de-
signed to place the farmer's income
on a par with that of city dwellers.
This is correct. That is the founda-
tion of the entire plan.
However, the reader failed to
mention, ox- failed to notice, the main
purpose behind this objective. The
farm program as constituted has a
direct relation to the President's
attempts to formulate a general
policy which he believes will bene-
fit this nation far more than it
costs.A policy which he believes will
go a long way toward breaking the
"boom and bust" cycle.
Experience with past depres-
sions has shown that they have
always been preceded by a drop in
farm income to a point consider-
When any segment of our people
When an ysegment of our people
are receiving a share of the na-
tional income which is too small
to enable them to maintain their
share of the purchasing power
of this country, our economy is
entering on shaky ground. Such
a condition cannot long continue,
because the unbou,ght surpluses
will sooner or later cause unem-
ployment in other industries. It is
this chain reaction which the pro-
gram seeks to break.
The reader refers to the cost of
the farm program, comparing it to
the cost of maintaining the Navy.
As far as this comparison is con-
tinued, it is useless. We are going
to have to maintain our defense
establishment, present conditions
being what they are, for some time
to come, barring some unforeseen
but fervently desired event. But in
the meantime we cannot afford to
neglect economic affairs in our own
back yard. If we do, by the time we
get around to locking the barn door,
the proverbial horse will be gone.
The reader declares that increased
taxes would come "heaviest ... on
the very farmers who would be help-
ed most by the Brannan plan." In
this statement he fails to realize
the essential point of the future
tax program . . . Taxes which tome
out of income which would other-
wise be spent on consumption goods
do our economy no good. Taxes must
come out of maney which would not
be spent so as to increase the por-
tion of the natoinal income which
is "plowed back" for the future.
We must form a new concep-
tion of the government's taxing
power and the public debt. We
must have public expenditures if
we are not to continue in our old,
erratic course. The taxing power
and the public debt are instru-
ments which can be used to stabi-
lize our economy. If we are to
break the boom-and-bust cycle,
we must develop new concepts of
the government's role in economy
stabilization.
As to the threat that the plan
will "reduce him (the farmer) al-
most to the status of a civil servant
. . . there is in the letter, unfor-
tunately, no evidence to substantiate
the charge. For. many years such
charges have been made whenever a
reform has been proposed in which
the government played a large part.
To this attitude there is only this
to say: we cannot use, and we should
not want, a Model T government in
a Dynaflow age.
it
Legalized"Hazing Proposed
By Two Freshmen Students
To the Editor:
In an editorial of one of your recent issues were these
words: "Exponents of hazing and compulsory participation
(in Freshman Guidance) have been significantly silent." Be-
fore going any further, may we comment right here that
critics of Freshman Guidance among those who have partici-
pated in or under it have also ■
been significantly silent. It is
, easy for us to conclude that
their silence means approval as it
is for those condemning the Pro-
gram to assume that silence on the
part of those of us in favor of it
means we are ashamed or afraid to
speak our piece in its behalf. That
is the purpose of this letter—and
we hope that we can present1 our
reasons in a logical and orderly
fashion.
In the first place, as to whether
the program should be compulsory
or not, we'd like to say that the
program under which we were
guided this past year was not com-
pulsory, And we do not believe that
participation in the program should
be compulsory. However, it * should
be compulsory that every student
be exposed to the program. Wheth-
er or not he or she participates will
depend on his or her own personal
traits and characteristics and on the
ability of those running the pro-
gram to make the benefits of parti-
cipation in the realm of school spirit
and class unity far outweigh any
disadvantages or impositions it may
make. Better than 99% of those who
were exposed this past year stayed
in the program—a fact which lends
weight to the idea that the program
this past year had something worth-
while to offer. While we're on the
subject df last year's program we'd
like to give our hearty approval of
every phase of it. It was run in
a friendly and yet firm manner—as
it should be. There were no bad
feelings engendered on the part of
anyone. It's only failure was its
inability to include all the fresh-
man class in at least some of- its
regular activities. As a foundation
for future improvement it could not
have been better.
Now concerning hazing—if what
we suffered this year was hazing
then mark us down as being in fa-
vor of it. Our reasons—(1) In any
program involving a mass of hu-
^ manity there has to be a driving
force: (2) Our contacts with phy-
sical hazing, though they stung like
hell or made us weak as dishrags
at the time, did no permanent dam-
age and actually unified us as no-
thing else would, for nothing makes
friends of strangers like a common
ordeal; (3) It's good to have to
suffer and endure something un-
pleasant every once in a while; (4)
It brought us down fro mour high
school pedestal to the realization
that we were actually not very much
until we proved it; (5) And if you
want to get real philosophical,
learning to take a few broom licks
is good practice for the coming
licks which school and life will deal
just as impartially and forcefully.
By no means do we approve of any
brutal, sadistic beating or anything
immoral or degrading in any fash-
ion, but there is nothing brutal nor
immoral about a few well-applied
broom licks—after all your mother
used to spank you there—or at least
she should have.
Freshman Guidance wasn't or-
shouldn't be concerned the majority
time with the physical. Who did the
majority of yelling at football
games 1m Who made the posters ad-
vertising the games? Who guarded
the campus and bonfire? Who put
on a shoe scramble and parade to
the amusement of all who saw
them? Freshman Guidance!
Next year should have a
Freshman Guufance program! It
should include more study of campus
affairs and its traditions; it should
include more pep-rallies and yell
practices; it should strive (for
dormitory students) to quickly teach
the problems, duties, rights, cour-
tesies, etc., of living in mass; it
should bend every effort to wher-
ever possible work with the Fresh-
man class as a whole; it should in-
clude for those to whom it cannot
be applied some form of "legalized"
hazing; it should.be run by Sopho-
mores who are conscientiously and
actively interested in the Program.
Sincerelv yours, two guys who
wouldn't take a million dollars for
having gone thru Freshman Guid-
ance,
HAL DeMOSS
ED AGNEW
State Department, U. iV. Offer Chances
For "Internship," Summer Employment
Outstanding students who are graduating this June, or who will have
finished at least two years of school and who are looking for summer
employment, might miss the chance of their lifetime if they don't look
into the recently announced Department of State Intern Program, and
the United Nations Summer Student Intern Program.
Applications by Rice students in-
terested must be handed to one of
the three members of the faculty
committee before next Wednesday
at 2:30. At that time Rice's com-
mittee will meet to make Rice's
recommendations of qualified stu-
dents for this program. The mem-
bers of this committee to whom
questions should be directed if nec-
essary, are Mr. William H. Master-
•son, Mr. J'. B. Giles, or Dr. B. B.
Hudson. These there can also tell-
interested students what sort of
things must be included in the ap-
plication forms.
A program of "internship" is
being offered a limited number of
college students who are interested
in making a career in the Depart-
ment of State. This program will
involve special assignments on pro-
fessional or administrative work irv
one of the areas of the Department,
specialized instruction at the De-
partment's Foreign Service Insti-
tute, rotational and observational
assignments, and periodic group dis-
cussions.
Selection of these "interns" will
be limited to outstanding students
completing their undergraduate or
graduate courses by June, 1949, and
other college graduates who are not
now attending an Educational In-
stitution. In order to qualify for a
position in the Departmental Ser-
vice, the intern must compete suc-
cessfully in an appropriate Civil
Service Examination, either prior to
or during the internship. A special
board of selection will be established
in the Department of State for se-
lection of interns. The beginning
salary for interns will be $2520 per
annum.
(Continued on Page 8)
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 56, Ed. 1 Saturday, May 7, 1949, newspaper, May 7, 1949; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230811/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.