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Show Page 2 SIGNPOST October 29. 1965 (321CDQ,D,(20DDSI?Inl'? EDITOR'S NOTE: The following editorial does not express the feeling of the editor, or the SIGNPOST as a whole. But the SIGNPOST policy does encourage the publication of other viewpoints. The Editors Today we wear the weight of history! We exist in a world of petty ambition, of ruthless self-realization, of cruel oppression. Our history Is a history of human exploitation. Our hope Is the hope of desperate men. We are rooted In a philosophy so damnable that it defies the logic of civilized men: the philosophy of capitalism! L et us examine, for a moment, the nature of this philosophy. Capitalism is, essentially, a system of economic organization featured by the private ownership (and the use for private profit) of "man made" and "nature made" capital. Admittedly, there is nothing Inherently evil In the ownership of private property. It is only when the nature of that ownership Is such as to enable the arbitrary act of one Individual to adversely affect the life and standards of another that private ownership becomes evil. In our own acquisitive society, as Harvard's Dean Monroe has so pointedly noted, "the ability to make money excuses everything else". Such a system necessarily Involves no principles other than the self-serving principles of selfishness and mutual antagonism. Under such a system, it is not surprising that a goodly percentage of the people are condemned to a life of deprivation and want. President Johnson's Administration counts 35 million poor. This is an arbitrary figure at best. Leon Keyserling, Head of the Council of Economic Advisors to the President, implicitly maintains that 40 per cent of our citizens live in poverty or deprivation! If, indeed, it is true that under our present system the "Consumer is King", then I submit that his realm is morally and economically impoverished. I t Is important that we realize that the poverty of the poor is not an accident. It CANNOT be attributed to "temporary difficulties", or a "personal fault", or "lack of Initiative". It is the permanent state in which a large number of the citizens of any capitalist country must live! Fr, under capitalism, men are regarded as mere instu-ments of production, and their labor as a commodity to be bought and sold In the market place. Another evil which accompanies the present order is the social phenomena of crime. Since 1958, crime has increased five times faster than population. Is it not worthy of note that in the "land of the free and the home of the brave" there occurs a murder every 58 minutes, a rape every 34 minutes, a robbery every 6 minutes, an auto theft every 2 minutes, an assault every 4 minutes, a larceny every 60 seconds and a burglary every 39 seconds. The implications are clear. Disorder feasts upon the objective contradictions Inherent in the present system. Poverty breeds disorder and disorder engenders crime. Another social phenomena worthy of analysis is unemployment and all its attendant train of evils and inconsistencies. In a country of almost limitless resources 5.2 percent or 4,000,000 members of the labor force are idle because of unemployment. We must remember, too, that such statistics conceal the true face of unemployment. The actual unemployment rate may be 9 percent or 10 percent or even higher. For out of every 1,000 white men 25 to 64, 82 are listed as not working, but only 33 are listed as unemployed. The other 49 are listed as "not in the labor force"! Thus, while we glory in a Republic whose flag supposedly represents Justice, Truth, Apple Pie and Motherhood we are accosted at every back alley and dead end street by gross and inescapable inconsistencies which conspire to accuse us of ignorance, indirection, and arrogance. Further, it is important to realize that, "there is nothin In the present system fixed unalterably by the laws of nature or economics, or sacrosanct by any law of God." Thus, our task readily becomes apparent. We must so reorder our society that the labor and leisure of our citizens is Invested with creative meaning and purpose. We must build a system which seeks to share the abundance which already we can create. For only upon that basis can we hope to build a free and enlightened civilization. "Would man but wake from out his haunted sleep Earth might be fair and all men glad and wise". These are, Indeed, prophetic lines. For when the "bread and butter problem" is resolved and men, women and children the world a-round are rendered secure from "dread of war and fear of want", then the mind and heart and soul of man will be free to develop as they never were before, and generations of children yet unborn shall arise and fashion an Eden from this wilderness. Letters to the Editor To the Editor: The immature, contradictory, hot-headed name-calling that Mr. Dell Griffin resorted to last week in this column forces me to point out to him some of the fallacies of his statements. If Mr. Griffin can't analyse the characteristics of feudalism and authoritarism deeply enough to see the basic structure of a socialistic society, then perhaps he doesn't know what socialism is. If he will consult the writings of Marx, Engels, Shaw, Lenin, and others, he will find that socialism is a belief in mutual interdependence, a belief that the state must necessarily control that individual. He will find that slavery and feudalism were forms of socialism. If this is true, and authorities agree with me, then how can Mr. Griffin substantiate his own definition of socialism as being the belief that all men should have the opportunity to control their own destiny in all matters of importance? Perhaps he should also consult his high-school history books before he says that this country was founded on the idea of cooperation. If this had been so, then the colonists would have "cooperated" with the British to bring about a "peaceful agreement". It wasn't cooperation, Mr. Griffin, it was individual effort, and a desire to be free from a tyrannical government. If Mr. Griffin had paid any attention to the news reports last summer, he would not be able to say that the British and Swedish forms of socialism are doing great. How does he explain that Sweden has abandoned their programs of Medicare and social security? What does he have to say about the fact that the U.S. had to bail Britain out of a very serious financial crisis by heading off a devaluation of the pound sterling? These, in simple terms so that Mr. Griffin might understand, are the results of inflationary government spending, which is a product of a socialist state. I assume, however, that he agreed with the major premise of my article since he chose only to comment on minor points. Thank you sir, for your support. Now, Mr. Griffin, I would like to know what those other points are that were mentioned. If you cannot substantiate them with facts, I suggest, sir, that you adher to the old proverb, "It Is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you don't know what you're talking about, than to open it and remove all doubt". and not exceed 300 words. Any material must be submitted no later than noon Monday of each week. Editor-in-Chief As.ociota Editor JACK SUTTIEMYRE JOE s- WRIGHT Managing Editor , Bill Cooper Layout Editor Merrillee Nielsen Business Manager Mark Zeller Society Editor . . Penny Furness Sports Editor Rick Hassett Feature Editor Carol Deegon Columnists Cheryl Lorenc, Ray W. London Cartoonist Kent Hansen Drama Critic . George Butsikares Film Critic ....... Bert Mith Staff Artists Dianna Page, Bob Hunter represented for national advertising by NATIONAL ADVERTISING SERVICE, INC. 18 East 50th St., New York 22, N.Y. GWcgo, Boston, Los Angelos, San Francisco by Cheryl Lorenc 'Pnoh'" said Cat, with Much Feeling. Set!" said Wlet.-Vou.re making toomuch no.se was no wonder. It was dark, too. Pooh was reaiiy mawiiB iu uttrtm man un x HIE . .... i ;t 4V,o chorlvu.o o rA -J- of wavy ii&11L iulu -jnuvjvj " o aiixa indue and evil. At least mat s wnat ummiett the corner, and we have to run what'U If someone comes we'll all just stand human totem pole i- ihn hmrnm n .ill kjii a. FOon was Ulc sent sparkles miifo unsafe Z d PooBh was the"mosJ worried about the dark nit cnmpone comes around I do?" . . .. mill wnrrvine . "bnUCJUlJ' r" w even here." said Wise Owl. n4ut that's easyEnough for you to say, Owl, you're on the very top. Y.U TES' sXn1heatryuTh: K waTtne very top man. He was supplyTammleU who was standing on Ommlett who was standing on Piglet who was standing on cyuic J Y V. ,VV,r legs on Pooh's shoulders. Eyesore was supposed to be on the bottom , hut he was so afraid that his knees knocked so violently and everyone but he was mj uxi spp.nnd time Wise Owl lanrton -4T.r Thar nanuentru lww-c. " : - on his head and burrowed it into the ground sorrv too. But it's hard to tell if he felt at all Eyesore almost looked at the i f Sincerely, Boni Benton Dear Editor: The Men of Excelsior have spearheaded a drive for National fraternities. Club cooperation has been at a low ebb for the last two years. Therefore, Excelsior has oarried the fight alone. Clubs have become more interested in beer parties and long hair. We say to the other clubs: put aside your petty differences and join the drive for national fraternities. Excelsior has formulated a partition to a national fraternity and plans for a fraternity house are being drawn up. College officials who will be dealing with fraternities are in favor of clubs becoming nationally affiliated because fraternities are easier to control. Only two of the college policy making officials have not seen the benefit of national organizations. It is now possible to override these officials. We, therefore, invite the other clubs to join in the fight to bring Weber up to college level socially. Doug Kunz Pooh didn't say anything else He was: too airai u time. For many yeaia jw uik u.....u i uKle , -Kjn nna TTvorv Kallnwppn Pnnh wnuM I really was a Great umpM". -- . mention the Great Pumpkin and how good he was and howmany presents he eave and no one believed him. They, even wise Owl, just smiled I or laughed or guffawed at the very idea of a Great Pumpkin. But last vear the great Pumpkin took care of all of them. He put honey and flour on every door. Piglet had to crawl out his window for a whole , week afterwards because he couldn't get his door open. But this year everyone believed. That's why they were standing on each other by L the only tree in the pumpkin patch. "Why don't we just sit down and wait like regular?" said Ommlett, , "That seems like the logical thing to do." . j "Silly" said Piglett, "if the great Pumpkin saw us we'd be turned I into rotten pumkins. So we have to be sneaky and peek from behind L thi c tree "Really that's true," said Hammlett. "A good friend of mind is ! sitting on 'his mother's pantry shelf all orange and smelly, because he ; let the Great Pumpkin see him." I "He didn't see the Great Pumpkin, your friend was Rip Marlln, . and he's just acting," said Eyesore. I "He is a method actor," said Hammlett with Much Thought. !, Pooh was going to say something but as long as his friends believed in the Great Pumpkin it didn't really matter what they said about , him Besides Pooh was getting more worried. The Great Pumpkin 1 had never been this late before. The moon went down. And the I darkness was so well, dark, that all Pooh could see was the flourescent I white of Eyesore's teeth, the whites of his eyes were too bloodshot to ' glow. "Can you see anything?" whispered Hammlett as Wise Owl peeked s- hesitantly through the protective branches of the tree. j "Not a thing," mumbled Owl. "Not a thing except something's MOVING out there!!!" ! A gasp of incoming air filled the anxious group up. The cold almost winter wind froze the group to the tree.. No one breathed. "It's moving this way," wheezed Owl. "No it's stopped. . . I can't see anything, now ..." nh Hoar!" fried Ptelett. "We'll all be turned into rotten pumpkins ... I just know we will." "It's . . . it's . . . orange . . . and and . . . big. . ." j "We're doomed," shouted Eyesore as he jumped right against tie tree bouncing onto the ground. Pooh jumped out of the way as Piglet ; swooshed into the place Pooh had just left. Ommlett landed on Eyesore j and grabbed ahold of his shaggy mane. Eyesore brayed that he had the . Great Pumpkin on his back and Hammlett and Wise Owl landed on Piglet. Then the biggest, fattest most orange pumpkin with the reddest eyes rushed from behind the tree. To describe the scene that followed is impossible. Owl's prematurely . grey hair went white, Piglet's tail uncurled, Hammlett lost his voice and also Ommlett and Eyesore ran around in circles because he forgo where he lived. He finally went home with Piglet. But Pooh just j laughed. He rolled on the ground and put his paws in his mouth to keep the laugh quiet. And still he laughed. I "Ohhohooo! Rabbit, you are the very best Great Pumpkin I've ever ever seen." Pooh laughed out loud as Sport Rabbit tapped Ponn shoulder. Pooh turned around. He did not move. He looked and then ( looked again. He looked first at Sport Rabbit who was dressed in a . stringy orange costume and was wearing a funny orange mask. T e Pooh looked at the biggest most orange thing he had ever seen. j one said anything or moved. ; "Oh," said Pooh quietly fainting. . ,. ' "Hallo Happoween," stammered Sport Rabbit putting his foot his mouth. "Happy Halloween!" said the Great Pumpkin. Happy Halloween r?eai Pumakifi |