The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 44, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 28, 1956 Page: 4 of 10
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Four
THB THRESHER
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER SS, IMC
The Right 7o Be Civil
The hearing which begins today following the recent
court order for the N.A.A.C.P. to terminate all activities
in Texas commands close and critical attention. To Attor-
ney General John Ben Shepperd it is simply a problem of
getting rid of a group which many people hold responsible
for the unhealthy situation in Mansfield and Texarkana.
If Shepperd can prove that the organization is making a
profit while remaining a foreign corporation he can- force
the group out of business or into seeking state incorpora-
tion and an appeal of the decision. These tactics, if not
wholly successful will at least stall the action of the
N.A.A.C.P.
The problem, however, is more than one of legal tech-
nicality, it is one of Constitutional privilege. The action of
the N.A.A.C.P., while sometimes unwise, is still not sedi-
tious. It stands to the credit of this organization that they
have always attempted to bring integration through legal
and orderly means. They have worked through the courts
in every instance, avoiding economic pressure or violence.
They have been instrumental in the successful and peape-
ful integration of schools in hundreds of towns. They have
guessed wrong on some towns—Mansfield, Clay, Clinton—
but for every failure they have a dozen successes to point
to. Outlawing the N.A.A.C.P. is also outlawing the chief
means by which the Negroes can make legal advances in
Texas.
It is particularly ironical that the very people who de-
cry the Supreme Court decision as unconstitutional in view
t)f judicial precedent are the very who are willing to flaunt
both the letter and spirit of the very same document. The
ability to oust at will any organization not fully in accord
with the actions or desires of a government, be local, state,
or national is an awesome power, one directly in conflict
with the Bill of Rights provisions for freedom of speech,
assembly, and petition.
One need not sympathize with the ideas of a group
to recognize its right to express them. And where such a
vital issue as civil rights is concerned a medium of expres-
sion for a minority is imperative.
0
Social Studie
0
In about a year, the disposition of the deserted lounge
will be determined. When students move their juke-box,
Automat, lunchsacks, and playing cards to the new Mem-
orial Center the space in the basement of the library will
be assigned to some new purpose. Some talk has been made
of converting it into a bigger and better exam room or
storage space. We wish to plea the*students' case.
The library has always been plagued with talking-. It
has been hoped that the Memorial Center would solve this
problem in the Science and Liberal Arts rooms; we won-
der . . . Much of the conversation is not of a social nature;
students frequently find it to their advantage to study or
discuss common assignments together. Particularly during
exam times, seminars are not available for all the groups
who would like to use them. Consequently, they have frer
quently taken over tables or sections in the reading rooms
to talk—quietly, but loud enough to disturb those who
want to study alone.
The memorial center will probably not be appropriate
for this sort of gathering. While there will be two lounges,
we feel the atmosphere of sociability—juke-box, cards, *and
bull sessions—will probably prevail In both of them.
If the lounge could be equipped with several large
tables for group study we feel that silence in the rest of
the Library can and will be enforced. This is both to the
advantage of students who don't want to adjourn to the
Memorial Center to discuss a confusing problem and peo-
ple who just want to be left alone.
HARVEST
By JARRENJ5 MENGDEN
What happened at Rio* five, tan,
twenty, even forty year* ace? The
following are excerpts from Thresh-
era of years peat.
September 27, 1941:
Winds approaching hurricane
intensity smashed three 12-foot
leaded windows in the eastern
end of the Physics Amphithea-
tre, partially flooding the upper
portions of the auditorium and
wrecking 14 lecture chairs.
Chairs in three back rows were
toppled over by the force of
gales that reached sixty-five
m.p.h. Extensive damage to oak
and elm trees lining the walks
took place, and two giant oaks
near the main entrance, more
than 100 years old, were lost.
Tony Martino, head gardener,
said that four to five years
would be required to erase the
effects of the hurricane.
October 1, 1926:
MAGAZINE ON DECIDEDLY
MORAL PLANE THIE YEAR
According to Paul Hochuli, ed-
itor of the Rice Owl,, the first of
the five issues of that magazine
will be in the hands of readers
by October 18, in time to add
pep to the Rice-Texas game.
October 2, 1936:
The matriculation of Charles
Nathan in the freshman class
brought to Rice the first child of
a four-year graduate of Rice to
return to the Institute.
September 22, 1933:
One of the wildest sights ever
to grace the Rice campus made
its appearance this morning- as
hundreds of slimes and slimeses
in every form of dress and un-
dress arrived.
Girls—pretty girls—girls not
so pretty — timid girls — all
looked alike in the amazing cos-
tumes designed by enterprising
sophomore co-eds. They looked
Jto'iM&.with a. black, stocking.on
each head, thoroughly covering
all hair, a man's shirt, open at
the neck with large sleeves, bag-
gy bloomers below the knee and
over this a sleeveless, backless,
beltless, short dress, a tennis
shoe, minus ties, on the right
foot, and a sock and evening
slipper on the left; they *were
put through their paces.
September 14, 1933:
Orders for two gross (twenty-
four dozen) frogs in assorted
I sizes have been made by J. I.
' Davies, biology instructor, and
| will arrive on Tuesday, in time
| for Dr. Altenburg's first fresh-
! man lab on Wednesday.
0 —
THE RICE THRESHER
The Rice Thresher, written and edited by students of the Rice Institute,
is published weekly in Houston, Texas, except during the summer. It is not
published during holidays and examination weeks. The views presented are those
of the staff and do not necessarily reflect administrative policies of the Rice
Institute. -
Editor Donna Paul Martin
Business Manager Clif Carl
Associate Editor Herbert Simons
Managing Editor Jim Bernhard
News Editor Bruce Montgomery
. Make Up Editor Ginger Purlngton
Sports Editor 3 Jim Bower
Feature Editors:
Fine Arts Helen Morris
Society Estelle Kestenberg and Naomi Robins
Exchange ,. Margie Wise
Religious Carolyn Dearmond
Student Council Erlene Hnbly
Staff: Bill Landfield, Tom Cady, Gary Canlon, Charles Earhart, Alan Bingolfe
Patsy Boits, Jarrene Mengden, Jim Hedges, Joan Felld, Fred Erlsman, Ed Sum-
mers, Doris Wlnans, Ann Farmer, Steve Williams, Harriet Hokanson, Wes Boyn-
ton, Jerry Pitttnan, Tim Stevens, Mike Reynolds, Owen Bitter, Claire Plungutan,
Una Lynn Matties, Francie Bartich, Mike Cluck, Roy Roussel, Hester Finke,
James Ragsdale, Frank Dent, Donna Shultz, Jimmy Evans, Patty Hulett, Claire
Middlebrook, Marilee May, Mary Claire Peden, Pat Puckette, Mary Powers, BUI
Corrington, Doyle Little, Meyer Nathan.
Field House Has
New Addition
The new 6000 square foot ad-
dition to the field house will fur-
nish better facilities for visiting
athletic teams as wety as pro-
viding much needed space for
the Rice teams, according to
head football jdoach Jess Neely.
The three new dressing rooms
comprising the additioiTwill pro-
vide separate facilities for each
team, even during spring when
the football, track, baseball, and
swimming teams are all work-
ing out.
Mr. Neely stated that the Ath-
letic Department's efforts to con-
dition the field across from the
P. E. building are suspended un-
til construction of the utility
lines through the field are com-
plete.
0
Definition of eternity.' Imagine
a tiny sparrow flying the 93
million miles between the earth
and the sun. On each trip he
flicks one grain of Sand from
the earth. When the last grain
is gone, one second will have
passed on the clock of eternity.
imu MAN ON
' NOW 6ST IN THKS AMf TV3UX*
Browsing
Huxley's New Novel Is
Delightfully Un-Huxlian
BY ROY ROUSSEL
This is to be a critical column
about books, and as every other
critic I know has his own group
of critics who seem never to tire
of pointing out his bad taste,
biased judgement, and general
lack of ability I see no reason
why I will be spared. However,
sroe„Xjim outpujnhewid,
fromi the first, I feel it is only
fair that I should be given a head
start, or at least have a chance
to anticipate their remarks.
T. S. Eliot once said some-
thing to the effect that there
was no such thing as competi-
tion in poetry.* This is equally
true if you extend it and say
there is no competition in liter-
ature, or at least in that part of
it conceived by genius. It is one
thing to say that Tolstoy is a
better novelist than Richard S.
Prather and quite another thing'
to say that he is better than
Bronte. The latter makes as
much sense as saying Joe runs
fast but I can ride a bicycle
faster; for the same reason it is
the peculiar nature of genius that
it doesn't conform to any set
standard. However, I like Tolstoy
better than Bronte. This is strict-
ly my opinion. But until you read
both of them, if-you haven't, it
will be all you have to go on.
This is why all talk of object-
ivity defeats its own purpose.
♦ ♦♦ - '
THE GENIUS AND
THE GODDESS
BY ALDOUS HUXLEY
Early in his career Mr. Hux-
ley cast himself in the role of
iconoclast, and it is a role for
which he is exceptionally well-
suited. Nevertheless, it is unfor-
tunate for Huxley that he chose
to be the , death of the Victorian
Age and not prophet of the mod-
em, unfortunate, not because
iconoclasts are unnecessary or be-
cause the Victorian Age was any-
thing to preserve, but because it
is very easy to become addicted
to being shocking and this is
what happened to Aldous Hux-
ley.
The Victorians had long been
consigned to history, and whole
generations grew up without the
slightest idea of what a leg-o-
mutton sleeve looks like; yet
Huxley continued to turn out
stuffy novels about stuffy peo-
f""*
pie, and what had been shock-
ing in the 1910's became merely
boring and slightly incomprehen-
sible in the 30's. I had almost
given him up, but now it seems
that he has, at least in part,
The Genius and the Goddess
still reflects Huxley's near ob-
session with infidelity, but it is
much more interesting than the
common, ordinary brand of in-
fidelity that his novels are usual-
ly full of. He has taken a family
composed of a nuclear physicist,
Henry Maartens, who' is emo-
tionally equivalent to a three
year-old; his twelve-year-old
daughter, and Henry's assistant,
tK'e completely innocent son of a
Lutheran minister.
In the midst of all this he
has placed one of his most in-
teresting, and most phallic crea-
tions, Henry's wife, Katy.
He has, for once, refrained
from lifting his characters out of
an amateur Chekhov production
has put a minimum of Huxlian
philosophy into their mouths,
kept things nicely paced, and the
result has been a novel that is
well worth the three or four
hours it will take you to read'
it.
This book is available in the
Rice Co-Op.
0
Lowdin To Be
Guest Speaker
Professor Per-Olov Lowden, of
the Institute of Mechanics and
Mathematical Physics, Uppsala
University, Uppsala, Sweden,
will give a series of five lec-
tures on the Subject "The Quan-
tum-Mechanics of M o 1 e^c u 1 a r
Bonding." The place is room 210,
Physics Building, the hour, 4:00
PM, the dates: Monday through
Friday, October 1-5.
Mr. Lowdin has just returned
from an International Confer*
ence on Theoretical Physics held
in Washington, D.C.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 44, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 28, 1956, newspaper, September 28, 1956; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231033/m1/4/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.