The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 34, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 16, 1949 Page: 2 of 4
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Two
THE THRESHER
News Item:
Literary Societies Choose New
Members, Bids Sent Out Monday
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, hut few are chosen.
Matthew 22: 13, 14
Handbook Committee Let J°Y
Should be Appointed Unconfined
A good handbook of the Rice Institute could be a stimulating
and strengthening factor in student activity and life on the campus.
1 he easy availability of such material as the constitutions and by-laws
of the Student Association and Honor System, and the rules concern-
ing the elections and the Forum Committee could be a concrete step
toward creating more interest in student affairs.
Last year a small committee worked hard on a handbook, but
their valiant efforts still failed to produce one. If the students are
to ha "2 one next year, the Student Council will have to take action
now. I here is only one semester left of this school year and the
work involved in writing, organizing, financing, and securing faculty
approval of a handbook would require at least that much time.
I here are still a few members of the pioneer committee in
school who would be of great help in such an undertaking. The
Student Council should appoint a committee of students who are
not overburned with extra-curricula activities, and^ are diligent and
imaginative.
1 he •problem of financing a handbook should also be con-
sidered by the Council. It would be poor taste to include any sort
of advertising, so the most expedient method is by the addition of a
few cents to the Blanket 1 ax, or reapportionment of the present
Blanket 1 ax.
It is essential that action be taken immediately if the Council
feels that the students should have a handbook.
0
Opera in the Lounge?
Only a few of the students who work in the Roost and a few
members of the 1 hresher staff got to hear the opera "Peter Grimes"
over the Student Lounge FM equipment last Saturday afternoon while
it was being tested. If the Forum Committee would arrange for
Mr. Girard to be present (with a few copies of "Opera News"
handy), and if J;he Student Council would say it is all right to keep
the Lounge open on Saturday afternoons, this Saturday should provide
an excellent opportunity to hear the Met present "Aida" under nearly
perfect conditions. Good music, over excellent equipment, with a
good moderator,* and in company with fellow students—all add up
to a series of great afternoons during the opera season.
o
General Gripes
1 h( re are a lew things that ought to be done by somebody
around thi- campus:
Put a mirror in the men's room in the Student Lounge.
I ake the tank traps out of the road behind the library, and
between the library and East Hall.
Put some soap dispensers in the various rest rooms.
I ill the sidewalks up to the level of the surrounding swamps.
I urn the water fountain on in the Student Lounge.
Stop line-jumping by certain elements in the Dorm chow line.
Get better attendance at the Forums.
WEDNESDAY EDITION
Managing Editor
Assistant
Etta Colish
Emmett McGeever
7WEX/CE m m
Editor
Assistant Editor
Business Manager
Assistant Business Manager
Dorm News Ted Cornelia
Sports David Miller
Assistant . Howard Martin
Intra murals Dewey Gonsoulin
Soeitv/ Eleanor Sticelber
Assistants—Marty Gibson,
Bev Hawkins
Make-up Carol Wheeler
Fanfare Betty Fqye Grosse
Photographer .... Nelson Miller
Salesman Ernest Voss
Regular Reporters—John
Blakemore, Don Eddy,
Etta Colish, Bill Collins,
Camilla Grobe, Charlie
Wolf, David Braden.
Brady Tyson
Robert Mcllhenny
Nancy Hood
.. Tom Smith
Published every Wednesday and every
Saturday of (be regular school year
except during holiday and examination
periods by the students of the Rice
Institute. Editorial and advertising of-
fices are in The Fondren Library on
the campus.
Entered as second class mniling mat-
ter, October 17, liilfi, at the Post
Office, Houston, under the act of
March 1879.
Represented by National Advertising
Service, Inc., >120 Madison Ave., New
York City.
by Emmett McGeever
"We hold these truths to be self-
evident . .
Monday at noon the invitations
from the four Literary Societies to
their prospective neophytes were
"mailed. The four secretaries of the
respective societies trooped to the
post office in a body (spiritual),
their twofold purpose being: 1. To
mail the bids, and 2. To make cer-
tain that no other society got there
first. An impartial observer is
forced to assume that all the bids
were crowded into the same box si-
multaneously, to avoid any advan-
tage being gained.
Now, at the instant of mailing, the
female portion of the freshman clasa
was divided into three sections. The
girls who received more than one
bid will knuckle their brows in an
effort to decide which to accept. The
girls who received one bid will be
glad and thankful and will immedi-
ately say an Ave. Those "unfortu-
nates" who received no bid at all
will, presumably, weep bitter tears,
accompanied by racking spasms.
It is inconceivable that anyone
would have the integrity to refuse
an invitation. No matter how much
a girl might dislike and disapprove
of the social philosophy of soror-
ities, she must realize that a f^fusal
would be social extinction—anathe-
ma.
"That all men were created equal,
and are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable Rights, that
amor,? these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness.—That to
secure these rights. Governments are
instituted among Men. deriving their
just powers from the consent of the
governed . . ."
It has been argued that if a girl
is at all "worthwhile,' 'she will be
invited to join a Lit Society. And
who is to judge of the worthwhile-
ness of the girls? Why, the other
worthwhile girls, of course! It is
well known that not only are all the
worthwhile girls in Lit societies, but
all the girls in Lits are worthwhile.
This is assumed. The most skillful
leader of men in our time, Adolph
Hitler, said: "If you repeat a thing
often enough, people will believe it,
no matter how big a lie it is." But
everyone knows that the Best girls
are in the Lits, the most Congenial,
that is, not just everybody. And
once they're all joined together, pre-
sumably in bonds of steel-like sister-
ly affection, they are privileged to
have something to be loyal to,
"something bigger than all of us."
It'is right and proper to express
condolences to those girls who "did
not make it." They will miss out
on social functions consisting of fil-
ling" barren halls with barren spirit^.
They will be deprived of that strict
regimentation of thought which al-
lows no opinion but that of the
CLUB. Th#y will miss their picture
in the proper section of the Cam-
panile. They will be abandoned to
individuality. Too bad, girls, better
luck next time.
"We have appealed to their native
justice and magnanimity, and we
have conjured them by the ties of
our common kinship to disavow these
usurpations. . . . They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice." . . .
so let's get behind the club and
FIGHT!
NO, HC AIN'T HERE. HE'S GONE OVER
TO "BILL'S" TO STUDY IN PRIVACY.
Imperial Wizard of Klan Maintains
That Ku Klux Klan Hates Nobody at All
(Continued from Page 1)
can't be Klansmen. Therefore most
of the Jews are prejudiced toward
us. They have been persecuted so
many times in their history that
they are always afraid of every
group that won't let them belong—-
afraid this group will persecute
them. And then there is the Knights
of Columbus organization. They
won't let me join their group, either,
but it doesn't make me mad. I am
not prejudiced because I can't join,
but they are prejudiced because
they can't belong to the Klan. You
see, I'm not a Catholic and one of
the Knights of Columbus' rulest is
that only Catholics belong. And one
of our rules is that Catholics can't
belong. So the Jews and Catholics
both hate us. And then there are
the foreign groups—they dislike us,
too. They can't join, either, because
we don't let foreign-born people be-
long. In the big cities they main-
tain their old-country customs and
languages—more or less changing
America, while we try to i^>hold
the American way of doing things.
So everybody is prejudiced toward
us while we donft hate anybody. It
seems fair to me that we limit our
members if we want to. Our rule
is that onl ywhite, gentile, Protest-
ant, American born men can belong
to the Klan.
You see in the papers where every-
body is fighting us, and one of the
main groups is the Christian front
organizations. But they get most
of their money from the big Jew^
who are pouring many dollars into
this fight. One organization called
the "Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi-Lea-
gue" is fighting us, and they even
have a member in the Klan—but I
have a member in their organiza-
tion. I know who their member is
and all about him. Sometimes they
try to stop us from meeting, but
they can't do that because the Con-
stitution guarantees us the privilege
of meeting.
All these people are afraid be-
cause they think we are going to
persecute them—but we don't perse-
cute anybody. We just believe in up-
holding the natural order of things
which is white supremacy. Th©
Book of Genesis clearly shows that
the white man is superior and that
God wanted it that way. We don't
believe that man-made laws can
countermand God's laws.
Everything in the papers about us
is bad; but if you go to the bottom
of it, there's usually an answer for
it. Now take the Atlanta Journal—
you might think that it is too big a
paper to hold grudges, 'but it does.
The Journal is owned by Jimmie
Cox. Cox was the governor of Ohio
once, and while he was governor the
Klansmen in Ohio fought him and
beat him every time he turned
around. Now he hates us and is
fighting us. The Constitution did
not always dislike us, but it has
been their policy for sometime now
to criticize us. "Some years ago we
had to banish from the Klan a close
relative of a former editor of the
Constitution, and he began to fight
us. Now the new editor, Ralph Mc-
Gill, writes bad things about us
sometimes, but I believe that Mr.
McGill respects me despite what he
says in his paper.
No, I can't tell you what the
membership of the Klan is—that
has always been secret.
We are quite widespread in our
operations, there being only a few
states in which we do not operate.
We have large memberships in
the North, but up there we have to
operate under cover more because
of all the foreign groups fighting
us. The Grand Dragon of New York
visited me a few years ago, and he
was surprised at how openly we
operated down here. When he went
back he decided to bi'ing the Klan
into the open up there, too. He
owned a bonded warehouse and op-
erated^ several big trucks, and when
he showed his connection with the
Klan's, these groups waylaid the
trucks, broke his plate glass win-
dows and all sorts of other things.
Then his customers boycotted him
and ostracized -feim until he was
forced to quit. After this the Klan
went back under cover.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 34, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 16, 1949, newspaper, February 16, 1949; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230789/m1/2/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.