Page 4

THE SCARLET AND BLACK

Marshall Barber Writes A letter

If the purpose of your art-
icle on race relations was to
inflame half-wits, then I can
report that it has been an
unequivocal success. Three
days after its publication, one
of my friends who had cut
in line was harassedandstung
by some blue-nosed moral
watcher who had been incited
to an officious frenzy by your
sententious admonitions. A1~
though I place the blame for
this preposterous incident on
your hortations, Ihavenoser-
ious quarrel] with them. They
are, of course, buncombe, but
you have printed worse bosh
in the past while I remained
comfortably silent. Nor am I
actually surprised that ostr
ensibly intelligent men could
be inﬂamed by saidbuncombe,
for Grinnell students, my-
salf undoubtedly included, has
ve swallowed worse hokum
with nary a belch. What is
truly astounding is the fact
that any man, be he imbecile
or savant, could actually be
come indignant at the thought
of another man beating him
to the dystrophic sludge SeI‘V’
ed up the culinary assassins
of Cowles or Quad. I am
astonished by this indignar
tion just as I would be as-
tonished by a stampeding
stegosauri.

Personally, I am willing to
put off the inevitable bouts
with botched victuals and the
concomitant gastronomical
maladies and lacerated taste
buds until lam jacknifed with
starvation traumas. And if
some diabolical AfrOrAme~
rican wishes to exploit my
alleged ”white guilt com*
plex" in order to beat me to
the serving arena, and hence
incur dyspepsia of sufficient
power to launch a clirigible
five minutes sooner than me,
then I not only welcome his
infiltration wid'l accolade and
approbation, but also extend
an invitation to the entire Nar

tion of Islam, nay, beg the
entire Third World to join his
in this intrepid and benign
undertaking. I eXtend the same
invitation to all shouting Bap-
tists and other moral watr
cher.

By way of historical per-
spective, I might add that as
recently as three years ago
Grinnell College was a place
of remarkable equanimitywith
regard to the catalog of this
nor vices which now elicit
such fire and brimstone cons
sternation from crusading ed-
itors, senators, and similar
fauna. Line cutting, for one,
was a source of jocose re-
partee. Thehall Action Boards
had fallen into a state of in-
nocuous deseutude, andnofulr
minating SGA dervishes de-
plored their loss. The inscrus
table pharoahs of Hurling had
just squandered approximate-
ly $15,000 on its latest Nebur
chadnezzarian bauble, the re-
ception center, then announced
plans to erect a $2.5 million
combo gladiator arena » nau-
machia. The lugubrious periOr
dical agonizings over the pe-
cuniary woes arising from
student theft and vandalism
merely provoked, in view of
these extravagances, some
healthy snickers from the a-
mused Mamelukes. In those
mauve days, the Grinnell ExV
perience was not edifying then,
just as it is not edifying to-
day. But nor was it irritating.
Alas, alack, things, as they
say, have changed and worms
have turned.

In better times, aspiring
world savers who rose up on
their hind legs and bayed for
a Jehad on trifles such as
linercutting were laughed at.
Today these jerous are ac-
corded the reverence, ar at
least attention, befitting a
Castro or even His High H07
liness, Marx himself. The
formerly salubrious political
climate of this mmpus, Iam

grieved to say, has mutated
from a state of enlightened
apathy to reformish exhilira-
tion, which at least was ex-
citing. This mutation iu turn
has ossified into a particu*
Iarly jejune variety of wow-
serism and its uniquely Grins
ncllian adjunct, question-
nairism; both are manifestly
offensive and irritating. By.
even considering the proposal
to ban Demon Tobacco from
this campus, we officially ad-
jured any pretenses to be
the "Harvard ofthe Midwest'

as a result of this descent in-
to Seventh Day Ecological voo-
dooism, the propagandists in

(continued to page 6)

May 7, 1971

d on central campu ry

of last May's Kent State massacre. (Photo by Ed Leong)

Protest Election Procedures

To the editor:

Last week’s S St E summary
of house president elections
mentioned that the Dibble
election was held ”amidst unr
derground rumblings ofvoting
irregularities.” It is import-
ant that these irregularities
be disclosed to the college
public, for the election was
victimized by an ambiguity
concerning election procedr
ures.

The only guideline for con-
ducting elections was thatthey
'were to follow “democratic
lprocedure." Our Own exper-
iences with state, national,
and international democracy
are enough to clarify the am'
biguity of the term ”demoa
cracy.” But future house pre-
sident elections must have
this term defined, both for
convenience and for the elim-
ination of contested elections.
A number of Dibble hall
members were not satisfied
with the ”democratic proced-
ure" used in electing the
Dibble hall president. The
principle objection was to the
covert procedures used in
counting and reporting the
vote. First of all, the chair-

Wilard Magee Grooves 0n Pinballs

To the editor:

It is an established cannon
of journalism that an editor
is responsible for all the copy
in his paper. Therefore Imust
protest vehemently against
your permitting J.C. Labowitz
to use his column foravicious
and personalrralbeit indirect
--attack and slander on my
person. Trying to desperately
to bridge the generation gap,
ﬁnd the means of "grooving"
with students, of inaugurating
a good "rap" about “rele
vant" things, seeking toshare
the frustrations, the aspira—

tions, the victories and the
defeats that go so far to shap-
ing our students, I am re-
warded by Labowitz‘s uncon-
scienable andwif that were
not bad enough—inaccurate
attack.

J.C. has implied that pro-
fessors in general and me in
particular have so little to do
that we (an afford to spendall
our time watching pinball mar
chines. One would expect a bit
more empiricism from ajoint
major in economics and poli.
sci. In actual fact I have
merely cut down on the time

Paranoia Comes To Gtinnell

To die Editor:

I don't know howmany people
caught the notice at the bottom
of page I of Apri127th's Cams
pus Memo. It was an adver-
tisement for a ”Special Ag-
ent" with the Iowa Dept. of
Public Safety.

I wrate in to find out what
they wanted, and, you guessed
it . they want a NARC! I’m
enclosing the letter Ireceived
from the Department. So, kids,
beware cuz your Dean ofStu-
dents office is helping the state
find “special agents."

Hmmm.

Bob l-luXtable

The memo said: "The Iowa
Department of Public Safety
is looking for a special agent
for the Department of Narccr
tic and Drug Enforcement Di-
vision. Call the Office of the

Dean of Students for further
information."

Dear Mr. Huxtable:

Thank you for your letter of
April 28th expressinginterest
in the position ofSpecial Agent
with this Division. ESSEI‘II'
ially, this position involves
enforcement of the narcotic
and drug laws of the state of
Iowa and embraces all facets
of investigative work, such as
detection, gathering of evi-
dence, undercoveroperations,
searches, arrests, etc.

Enclosed are the mini um
qualifications for the pos on.
If you meet these require
ments, please let me knowand
I will send you a formal appli’
cation to complete.

Sincerely yours,

Wilbert Penberthy, Director
Division of Narcotic &
Drug Enforcement

spent at faculty meetings in
order to observe the multi*
media experience (sound,
light, movement) that is Grin-
nell pinball. In fact, since all
scientific studies show that
frustration and boredom lead
to fatigueand subsnot‘malperr
formance, my substitution of
pinball for faculty meetings
has served to increase my
efficiency. For a senior ma
jor to treat data so cavalierly
raises serious questionsabout,
what goes on in those depts.
that Labowitz purports to be
majoring in.

Furthermore, you have al-
lowed yourself to be used by
Iabowitz to avoid his legiti-
mately incurred debts. In the
first flush of enthusiasm over
the arrival of the machines,
J.C. promised _, before wits
nesses to treat me to a
game. He has nOt sought to
follow up and by his article
hopes to shame me into av-
oiding the pinball pallour so
he can avoid paying off.

As if this were not enough,
Labowitz is too biased a par-
tisan of pinball to confess
what has occured as a result
of the appearance of Paddock
and Funland on campus. At
least I still am able to show
up at my classesﬂincluding
my 10 seminar -- fully pres
pared. I cannot say the same
for J . . . but no, out of kind
ness to individuals, I fore-
bear to discend to particu~
lars.

James S. Magee
Assoc. Prof. of Poll. Sci.

man would not reveal the numr
ber of absentee ballots. In an
election inwhichabsenteebalr
lots are used, the number of
v0tes in addition to the quorum
present must be made public
before the election, to ensure
that no unorthodox vote pads
ding can occur after the quo-
rum vote is in.

The next objection was that
the chairman left the room to
count the ballots, without any
judges to supervise the vote
tally. The implications of
this procedure are reasonably
obvious: anything could have
happened in that outside room.
In an extreme case, the votes
could be of little importance
in the outcome. To make sure
that the votes are counted
fairly and correctly, the ch-
airman should either count
the votes in front of the qu0*
rum, or admit a vote judge,
representing each of the can-
didates, to the room where
the counting takes place.

Finally, the chairman, upon
rerentering Dibble lounge,
made no disclosure of the
result other than to declare
the winner. He would not re
veal the count to anyone, and
only after considerable pres-
sure was applied did he re
veal that the election was
"close.” The voters have the
right to know how their vote
affected the election outcome,

and the candidates have the
right to know how they fared
among the voters. The elecs
tion as it was mrried out left
no actual proof that the elec-
tion was valid. In fact, it was
far from democratic in pro-
cedure, and, if unfairly con~
ducted, could make votercast‘
ing little more than a token
procedure.

A point should be made here
that the objections to election
procedure raised here are not
personal charges against the
Dibble election chairman, but
only to the procedure itself.
The points being emphasized
here are that the procedure
was not democratic and shr
ould net be used in future el-
ections. This is the first year
for closedrhall presidential
elections; all the complim‘
'tions could not be foreseen.
We are calling for a clarifi-
cation of voting procedure,
and the adoption of this pro
cedure by all the halls in
electing their president. 1m.
portant in this procedure are
the disclosure ofabsenteebal-
lots, the supervised tallying
of votes, and the disclosure
of the complete results of the
election.

~written byJohn Morrissey,
co-signed by both sets ofcan-
didates (Mark Nissen/jim
Cams and John Potts/Mark
Williams) and by 18 oth6rs.

Sciences To Get $8200 Grant

Expanded opportunities for
instruction and student re
search in the natural sciences
at Grinnell College will be
provided by an analog com-
puter to be financed bya grant
from a Nevada foundation.

The $8,200 grant has been
awarded to Grinnell by the
Max C. Fleischmann Founda:
tion of Reno and is payable
July 1. President Leggett said.
The analog computer is ex
pected to be installed and
ready for use when‘GrinnelI's
1971772 academic year com-
mences this fall.

Access to the instrumentwill
benefit students in all three
Grinnell science departments

Tearing ll Down?

To the Editor:

I noticed recently that work-
men have started construction
of the P. E. complex again
and that other workmen have
begun razing the science bulls
ding. I think I speakfor others
as well as myself in saying
that the Administration is
making a bad trade.

Sincerely,
Douglas Russell

Ed. note , "Razing the science
building" actually refers to
work done on that building last
week which entailed dumping
loads of debris from the roof.

-- biology, chemistry, and
physics v stated Luther E.
Erickson, professor of chem?
istry and chairman of the Dir
vision of Science. It is being
purchased primarily for the
use of students in laboratory
studies, but will also aid in
lecture demonstrations, he
noted.

Erickson said, "This makes
it possible to solve mamema-
tical equations whichdescribe
the behavior of physical, chef
mical, andbiologiml systems.
The solution, displayed on an
oscilloscope or graph paper,
simulate the behavior of the
real system -- for example,
a change in position ofa pla‘
net, the concentration of a
chemical species, or the pop-
ulation of an insect species.

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