1937

Oklahomans at home and abroad

WINTER is here and springcan't be far behind, so Ray Hann, '12as,Detroit, Mich ., and Dr . V . E . Monnett,'12as, Norman, already are shooting let-ters back and forth with plans for the 25-year reunion to l)° held this spring by theClass of '12 .Plans are still in the formative stage,

but it has been suggested that the classeither publish a special magazine of itsown or provide material for a specialnumber of The Sooner Magazine to beissued about the first of May .

Collection of biographical materialabout members of the class, which in-cludes alumni prominent in many fields .already has been started .

Marker for MexMex, the white bulldog who for many

years worked hard at the job of beingSooner football mascot, will lie in an un-marked grave no longer . During I Ionic-

coming, Chauncey Dolph, '22as, '24bs.med,'26med, now of Houston, Texas, contrib-uted $25 for a headstone to mark Mex'slast resting place between Owen field andthe Fieldhouse.

43 in legislatureA careful check of the records indicates

there are 43 University graduates, formerstudents or present students in the newlegislature .Nine graduates of the Sooner law school

and one former student of the Universityare members of the State Senate . TheHouse roster contains 33 Sooners .The nine law graduates in the upper

house are Dennis Bushyhead, '29, Clare-more ; Charles B . Daffy, '22, Ponca City ;Merton Munson, '31, Lawton ; J . A . Rine-hart, '23, El Reno ; Jack Rorschach, '31,Vinita ; H . C . Ivester, '27, Sayre ; Joe B .Thompson, '27, Ardmore ; Tom C. Wald-rep, '15, Shawnee ; and James M. Wilson,'33, Enid . The tenth Sooner in the Senateis E . V . George, '26,x, Norman .

Sooners in the House are :Malcolm Baucum, student, Sulphur,

Murray county ; Bryan Billings, '33cx, Ok-lahoma county ; Herbert l, . Branan, '32as,now a senior law student, Muskogeecounty ; Dale brown, student, Coalgate,Coal county ; William O. Coe, '28law, Ok-lahoma county ; J . T . Daniel, '25as ; Wau-rika, Jefferson county ; Noel Duncan, '31as,Cleveland, Pawnee county .

Paul Edwards, '31law, Enid, Garfieldcounty ; Harold Freeman, '25,x, Pauls Val-ley, Garvin county ; Murray F . Gibbons,

The Sooner Magazine

Heads Fraternity

Tully Nettleton, '23

l irst

So soonergraduate ever to becomenationalpresident o f Sigma Delta ( ;hi, professional journ-alismfraternity, is

'full)Nettleton,'23 as,

noweditorial writer for the Christian Science MonitorMr . Nettleton was elected to the office at the

annual convention of the fraternity held in No-vember at Dallas, Texas .

After graduating from the University in 1921,he worked with the Norman Transcript and theDully Oklahoma and Times before going toBoston, Mass ., to join the staff of the ChristianScience Monitor

Ile now has an office in Washington and ar-ranges for much of the material used in thenewspapers magazine section, in addition to do-ing research work and writing editorials .

'15,x, Oklahoma county ; Finis C .Gillespie, Jr ., '33as, '35law, Hobart,Kiowa county ; Francis Goodpastor, '33cx,Vinita, Craig county ; Louie Gossett,'231aw, Antlers, Pushmataha county ;Ben Huey, '31law, Norman, ClevelandCounty ; Harry "Dutch" Hill, student,Chickasha, Grady county ; J . KennethHoguc, '35 law, Carnegie, Caddo county .Huby Jordan, '31,x, Kiowa, Pittsburg

county ; Aubrey Kerr, '28law, Ada, Pon-totoc County ; B. B . Kerr, '31law, Okla-homa City ; Glade R. Kirkpatrick, '27ex,Tulsa county ; Bert Larason, '30as, Fargo,Ellis county ; A . E . Montgomery, '15law,Tulsa county ; Floyd H. Norris, '35law,Tahlequah, Cherokee county ; George W.Oliphant, '31law, Holdenville, Hughescounty ; Roy H. Page, '30,x, Kellyville,Creek county .

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Leon C . Phillips, '16 law, Okcmah, Ok-fuskee county ; C . W. Schwoerke, '31law,Oklahoma county ; Jessie E . Taylor, '30as,'36law, Woodward, Woodward county ;M . II . Thornton, 'l0ex, Muskogee county ;Wilson Wallace, student, Carter county ;S . G . Whitaker, '37law, Marl.ow, Stephenscounty ; Webster Wilder, Jr ., '33law,Cherokee, Alfalfa county ; Marvin Wooten,'31,x, Konawa, Seminole county .

Presides at conventionRichard H. Cloyd, '19as, '28law, Nor-

man attorney, presided as province pres-ident at a province convention of PhiDelta Phi legal fraternity December 3-5at Denver, Colo . Earl Sneed, Jr ., '34as,'37law, was the delegate from HolmesInn, the University of Oklahoma chapterof the fraternity .The school year 1936-37 is the twenty-

fifth anniversary of the founding of theUniversity chapter, and a reunion ofmembers is planned in May, 1937 .New pledges of the chapter for the fall

of 1936 include Harry H. Alley, HenryO . Boatright, Herbert L . Branan, JohnClark Caldwell, Coburn Byron Kidd,Wesley M. Langd.on, Kenneth M. Rob-inson, Burdettc Connor Smith, MauriceE . Stuart, John Frank Taylor and Gran-ville Toinerlin .

"No lobbyingA resolution declaring that University

employes should refrain from contactingmembers of the legislature to promotemeasures concerning their departments orother departments of the University wasadopted at the December meeting of theBoard of Regents .The resolution stated :The president and the Board of Regents are

the only proper channel through which recom-mendations concerning the administration of theuniversity as a whole or in any of its harts,should reach the legislature or other state officialsand authorities .

Without the knowledge and approval ((f thepresident, no employe of the university shouldinitiate, or promote with individual members ofthe legislature or other state authorities, anyrecommendation concerning general universitypolicies or concerning his personal advancement,the advancement of his department, or the ad-vancement of any other individual or depart-n(ent . This applies also to encoura,genient of ac-tivity among students or groups of students .An employe of the university, who, by invita-

tion of a member of the legislature or a stateofficial, shall discuss policies affecting the uni-versity as a whole or any of its parts is underan obligation of honor to inform the presidentof the nature of such discussion .The purpose of this statement of principles is

to restrain members of the faculty and other uni-

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varsity employes from interceding with membersof the legislature or other state officials for per-sonal or departmental favors or for favors toother individuals or departments

It seems obvious that discrimination in favorof one individual or department must, in gen-eral, be at the expense of other individuals anddepartments; hence this statement of principles,whose adoption imposes an obligation whichfaculty members may not honorably disregard .

Army examinationFive graduates of the School of Phar-

macy planned to take an examination inDecember for second lieutenant positionsin the medical administrative corps ofthe United States Army . They are Her-man Jones, '36, Gordon Utter, '36, BillBray, '32, Orin Richardson, '31, andRobert Gowan, '29 .

Judge candidatesAs this issue of the magazine went to

press, three University alumni were beingmentioned as among the leading aspirantsfor the new federal judge to be appointedin Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Timessaid that the contest had been narroweddown largely to four men, including A.P. Murrah, `28law, Oklahoma City ; RoyceSavage, '25as, '27law, Tulsa, and FletcherRiley, '17as, Oklahoma City . The fourthman !fisted was E. L. Richardson, Law-ton . The appointment is in the hands ofSenator-Elect Josh Lee and Senator El-mer Thomas, subject to approval of theDepartment of Justice .

The minorityTwo of the three Republicans who sur-

vived the state Democratic landslide andwere elected to the state House of Rep-resentativcs in November are Sooners-Webster Wilder, Jr ., '33as, '33law, andPaul Edwards, '31ex. Edwards is fromGarfield county and Wilder, who was re-elected to the house, is from Alfalfa coun-ty . The third Republican in the house isFloyd Carrier, of Garfield county.

On scientific programsUniversity alumni who prepared papers

for reading at the annual fall meeting ofthe Oklahoma Academy of Science held inDecember at Oklahoma A. and M. college,Stillwater, included :Glenn C. Couch, '31as, instructor in

botany ; Margaret Kaeiser, '34as, '36ms,secretary in the department of botany ;Leslie Hewes, '28as, instructor in geog-raphy; Dr . A. C. Shcad, '19as, '23ms,assistant professor of chemistry; and Dr.F. W. Crawford, '29ms, '34ph .d, instruc-tor in physics.Graduate students in the University

who prepared papers are Mrs. MableFrings, Hubert Frings, Lawrence Man-tooth, William J. Hilseweck, Nina Bohn,Warren Constant, H. Born, W. Butcher,H . Tappan, Hugh Eley, Newton Ward,G. T. Pelsor, R. C. Sweet, James Hockerand R. Crim Cornett.

The Sooner Magazine

Honor Guest

R . O. Courtright '14

A Sooner who has gone fur toward the topin the coaching field was one of the outstandingguests at the annual Homecoming celebration of1936. He is R . O. Courtright, '14as, now back-field coach at the University of Michigan, AnnArbor .Mr . Courtright traveled all the way from Ann

Arbor to attend the annual alumni dinner-dancein Oklahoma City and to sec the Sooner-Mis-souri game . Writing to Secretary Ted Beairdafter he returned to Ann Arbor, he said : "Itwas a great pleasure to renew 'old acquaintancesagain . It certainly was worth taking, the longtrip, and I am only sorry I could not remainlonger."

Ile has had a successful career as director andcoach at Pittsburg State Teachers College, Pitts-burg, Kans . ; University of Nevada, ColoradoSchool of Mines and University of Michigan .

Appointed to the Michigan coaching staff in1927, he at first had charge of the "B" teamwhich then played a regular schedule . Aftermaking a notable record in this field, he waspromoted in 1932 to the post of backfield coachfor the varsity and freshman basketball coach .lie has also coached varsity tennis and varsitygolf, as well as teaching classes in physical edu-cation .

His record as a student in the University wasremarkable, as he made Phi Beta Kappa whilewinning four varsity letters in sport for each ofthree consecutive years, in football, baseball, trackand haskcthall . He also found time to sing inthe quartet and glee club . He is a member ofSigma Chi fraternity.

Mountain dramaTwo University law school graduates

met on opposite sides of a deer-slayingtrial in mountainous Pushmataha countyrecently, an occasion which attracted somuch public attention that officials decidedto hold the trial right out on the porchof the hardware store at Clayton, so thecrowd could see and hear .

Jess Pullen, '24ex, assistant state at-torney general, was sent to prosecute thecase because the charge was too unpopularfor local authorities to handle . Joe Stamper,

January

'33as, '35law, who in January will be-come county attorney, defended the hillcountry youth charged with slaying andselling a deer. The jurors sat on the edgesof their chairs as Stamper attacked the"money-interests" on charges that theywere buying deer at will, and as lie de-plored that the law should single out afarm boy to pay the penalty .The verdict, returned without any hesi-

tation, was "not guilty ."

Oratorio soloistsWilda Griffin, '27fa, '33fa.psm, and Earl

A. VirDen, '32fa, both on the Universityvoice faculty, were among the soloists as-signed leading parts in a presentation ofHandel's oratorio, "The Messiah," by theUniversity Choral union December 13 inthe McFarland Memorial church in Nor-man.

Board membersMart Brown, '29law, Clarence Black,

'30law, and Rex Belisle, '21law, are amongthe newly elected directors of the Okla-homa County Bar association which heldits annual meeting recently .

CAMPUS REVIEWIndignaton weekTempers rose rapidly in Norman on

a recent morning when the Daily Okla-homan came forth with a two-columnspread on page one which included :

1.

Aletter signed "Norman Merchant"bitterly assailing the University adminis-tration and charging the student bodywith loose morals on a wholesale scale .

2 . An assignment from the managingeditor to reporter Frank Dennis, '29as, tospend a week in Norman, run aroundtown in the evenings, and report what hefound.

3 . A report from Dennis giving thestudent body a clean bill of health .

Unfortunately, many persons apparentlyread only the denunciatory letter ; failedto read the sensible report at the bottomof the column that scotched it .Norman civic leaders, University author-

ities and the student body rose in wrathto protest . Some typical comments :

President W. B. Bizzell-"Outrageousslander on the students of the University .While the statement of Frank Dennis re-pudiated it completely, his statement can-not offset the harm that has been donethe university by the publication of theletter from some unknown individualwho claims to live in Norman."

Joint statement of Norman Chamberof Commerce and Retail Credit Men'sassociation : "As citizens of Norman inclose contact with student life we believethe University administration is conscien-tiously and effectively doing all within itspower to protect and promote high stu-dent morals and maintain a wholesomeatmosphere on the campus ."

1937

Ralph Kenyon, president of the men'scouncil: "The letter evidently was writtenby a man who did not know the factsor one who intended deliberately toinsult the students of the University . Iknow personally that the students of theUniversity are cleaner on the average thanmost people of the same age. The Uni-versity has established and is enforcingevery possible type of regulation to up-hold the moral standards among student; ."The Oklahoma News : "Common de-

cency would compel a newspaper to re-frain from publishing a charge after in-vestigation had disclosed the falsity of thecharge ."The report which Dennis made on stu-

dent life in Norman-a report made toan editor who decreed "Don't pull yourpunch"-should be read by all alumniand kept in mind for citing to parents ofprospective University students who fearthings are not as they should be in Nor-man .

Dennis' report to his editor :Norman is the driest city I ever saw.I spent a very pleasant week there, saw nothing

out-of-the-way except several tuxedoed drunksSaturday night, and saw thousands of studentsstudying, working or engaging in entirely whole-sonic recreation . Boys and girls strolling alonghand in hand I place in the last category .

It was a real chore to buy a drink .I spent an hour and a half and $3 .50 getting

a pint of whiskey, had to go to the next countyto get it, and if you are acquainted with OldQuaker you know I didn't get very much Furyour money .A taxi driver said he couldn't guarantee to

find a bootlegger, but would try . First he tookme to a ramshackle house near the state hospital,but the man there said he had quit the business .Then we set out for the other side of the Ca-nadian, picking up an ex-bootlegger on the wayas a guide . This fellow said the law had madeit so hot for him that he had quit selling whiskey .A five-mile drive, part of it through a junglealong the riverbank, produced the bourbon at thesecond stop . I bought that because it was allthere was . It was an hour and a half before wegot back to Norman, the liquor had cost $1 .75a pint, the taxi bill was $1 .75, and I don't thinkthere's one student in tell who could spare thatmuch money once a week for whiskey .The kids I saw drunk Saturday night were

stags at a fraternity dance . They looked likeboys who were drowning the sorrows that growout of puppy love, or thought they were smart .They weren't harming anybody or threatening anymerchants .At the Independent Men's association dance

in the Union, there probably wasn't a pint inthe crowd . A . E . Thomas, a wary University of-ficial who is the watchdog at the independent

This float showing a large red-paper football with the heads ofcharming co-eds peeping out wonfirst prize in the annual home-coming parade . The float wasentered by Delta Delta Deltasorority .

The Sooner Magazine

dances, said he hadn't seen any drunkennessthere all year . Since the students have been ableto get 3 .2 beer or better they have lost interestin the hard stuff, he said .

I suppose this sounds as if the Universitystudent hody is about 100 per cent lily white.It isn't . There are thousands of boys and girlsthrown together there, and the custom of theplace allows for some pretty promiscuous dating.A lot of girls-one per cent would be a lot inthe aggregate-slip out for late dates on weekend nights, and the midweek no-date rule eitheris unenforced or unenforceable .

I gathered that love finds an opportunity inNorman as elsewhere ; that a good many boysspend a lot of time in Oklahoma City, and asboys don't have to be in at fixed hours, probablymany spend the night in the city .

I learned that liquor is easily obtained at acouple of roadhouses on the Oklahoma City-Norman highway in Oklahoma county ; thatthere are no disorderly houses in Norman ; thatthere is a place on the river south of town called"Hell's Half Acre" for romantic reasons ; thatthe no-car rule is strictly enforced, and that thecab drivers shun trips to the country becausetheir insurance doesn't cover excursions far fromthe city limits .The guy who wrote the letter is just dead

wrong about unchaperoned bus trips . There wasone last year, and the students were punished .The dean of women, Edna McDaniel, probablyknows all about the late dating, but scarcelypersonally could pursue all violatcrs, even ifthat was her job, which it isn't .

It was my observation that the students arebetter protected, better disciplined, better be-haved on the whole than those of the same agein other cities in the state . As a matter of fact,they seem less like flaming youth than a lot ofOklahoma City high school kids .The hell-raisers are definitely fewer than the

one per cent you suggest. For every hell-raiserthere arc a dozen serious-faced boys like theone who minds the popcorn machine in theVarsity shop, working his way through schooland counting it a privilege.

Several hundred students responded toa call for a mass meeting and voted toboycott the Daily Oklahoman and Tinges .Walter Harrison, managing editor of

the two newspapers, was hanged in ef-figy early one morning by unknown critics.What appeared to be the final chapter

in the episode took place at a meetingof the Norman Forum when Mr. Har-rison, along with Robert Fredericks ofthe Oklahoma News and Jenkin Lloyd]ones of the Tulsa Tribune, was on thespeaking program.Under a barrage of questions from stu-

dents and faculty members asking whya newspaper would publish a letter with-out using the name of the writer, whenthe charges had been proved false, Mr .

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Harrison declared that he believed thepublication of the letter along with proofof its inaccuracy had done the Universityno harm ."Those charges about student moral

conditions have been circulated by wordof mouth for the last five years. I con-sider it was a compliment to the Univer-sity to bring it into the open and showthat the charges were unfounded."Mr . Harrison frankly admitted, how-

ever, that if he were doing it over again,he would print Dennis' report at the topof the column, to snake sure that every-one who read the letter would also readthe report showing the falsity of the ac-cusations.

AArmaments make jobsThe large armies of Germany and

other European countries are a form ofunemployment relief, and Hitler does notreally desire war for Germany, Dr . H .C. Peterson, instructor in history, said inthe principal address at the annual found-er's day banquet of the University chap-ter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Despite the threats of a major war,Great Britain still has the balance ofpower in Europe and "has her hand onthe brake," Dr . Peterson said .

Building is inspectedFive hundred persons went through the

new Biological Sciences building duringa visiting day program sponsored by thebotany and zoology departments and bymembers of biological societies. Eventsof the day included initiation of 21 pledgesinto Phi Sigma, a buffet supper sponsoringthe new members, and a public addressby Dr . 1 . E. Ackert, dean of the graduateschool at Kansas State college, in the eve-ning .

Indian instituteProposal for establishment of a $1,000,-

000 Institute of Indian Affairs at the Uni-versity of Oklahoma will be presented atthe new session of Congress, PresidentW. B. Biizzell has announced . The in-stitute would give training for those plan-ning to enter the Indian service, wouldaid those doing research in Indian history,and would help preserve Indian culture .