San Francisco Foghorn

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Vol. 54—No. T8
151
Winner of the Pacemaker Award
All-American  1954-1961
Tuesday, March 6, 1962
SKyline 1-31 18, 9i
PhiSisforian forum
District attorney, three teachers
discuss thorny censorship issue
By BRUCE DIASO
FOGHORN Kxecutive Editor
The perennially thorny problem of censorship received consideration from four varied
perspectives last night in the Phelan Hall Dining Room as the Forum Committee of the
Philhistorians presented four panelists discussing the question before a capacity audience
of 500.
The panelists, Father Francis
Marien, S.J., of the USF Philosophy Department; Father Eugene
Schallert, S.J., of the Sociology
Department; Dr. David Kirk of
the English Department, and
San Francisco District Attorney
Thomas Lynch approached censorship from different vantage
points: philosophical, sociological, literary, and legal.
Father Marien, the last speaker, during an informal opinion
rendering session, asserted that
he was representing philosophy
in the "just plain horsesense"
sense. He went on to say, "My
own definition of censorship is
that it is one type of thought
control restraining another
type."
"You have thought control at
Cal, too," Father Marien pointed
out. "It's just a different type of
thought control checking our
type of thought control." The
latter comment proved the best
applausergetter of the night.
Some censorship, Father
Marien felt, is "inevitable and
necessary; all of it is dangerous."
He opined that the state should
be the last censor because it is
the most dangerous one and
that the best censorship comes
from citizens themselves.
"In the end, it has its place;
it is unavoidable," Father Marien continued. He emphasized
that prudence should govern
censorship: "there should never
be a gleeful censor; the censor
should dislike his job." Father
Marien concluded, "It is a good
thing for man to be free, and
when in doubt, leave him free."
Father Schallert said it was
the task of the scientist to look
THE LENOX QUARTET, featuring (I. fo. r.) Paul Mersh, Theodora Mantr,
Peter Marsh, Donald McCall, will perform Thursday night at the Phelan
Hall Dining Room, at«:30 p.m. The SEC, sponsoring the concert, has
come up with an especially reduced price of fifty cents for all USF students.
Lennox String Quartet climaxes
SEC spring musical series
The Special Events Committee will go into musical orbit
this Thursday night when it will present the Lenox Quartet
in a concert in Phelan Hall.
These musicians—three men
and a woman, none of whom are
over thirty years old—have excited critics and audiences alike
throughout the country in the
few short years of their existence
as a group. The New York Times
summed up comment by calling
them "one of the finest quartets
this country has yet produced."
A mass for the dead will be
celebrated this Thursday at
11:15 in St. Ignatius Church
for the repose ot the soul of
Rosalind Stewart, sister of USF
junior Conrad Stewart. Miss
Stewart perished in the crash
of American Airlines flight
No. 1 in New York. The junior
class is sponsoring the mass
and encourages all of Conrad's
many friends to attend.
The Lenox has been especially
■ admired for its interpretation of
contempoary music. "Bringing
flavor and fire, and most of all,
youth to modern music, the quartet master many pieces that older
groups find difficult or even impossible to conquer," SEC co-or-
dinator Dennis Kennedy said.
The program for the Thursday
evening concert will include the
Leon Kirchner Quartet No. 2.
Written in 1958, the work is a
masterpiece of modern chamber
music. Kirchner, who until this
year was a faculty member at
Mills College at Oakland, won
the New York Circle Award in
1959 for this three-movement
quartet.
The concert will begin at 8:30
p.m. Admission for non-ASUSF
students is one dollar; for general public, two dollars.
at this phenomenon in terms of
what can be empirically asserted
of it. "In the matter of censorship, we must look at the mass
media, the types of effect they
have, and the function they have
on   the   persons   involved."
Reviewing from a criminological aspect the effect the portrayal crime and violence had
on the instances of such, Father
Schallert stated that given the
frequency of depiction, there
were few observable resultant
effects. He also reviewed the influence of escapist television programs.
"Regarding pragmatic morals,"
Father Schallert concluded, "we
must ask the question: If they
(violent TV programs, etc.)
have an efect, should they be
shown?"
Dr. Kirk traced the philology
of the word censorship. "Now,
as we see it in our newspapers,
it's a nasty word, a negative
word." Its origin, Kirk continued, was positive: in Sanskrit,
the word censor meant "leader";
in early Rome, the censor was
the counter or checker; in the
Roman Empire he protected the
body politic.
"In 1962, who is the censor?"
asked Kirk. "He is not an umpire, a traffic cop, a parent or a
teacher." Yet the censor is in a
way all of these, Kirk maintained.
The mustachioed professor recalled his own experience with
the Henry Miller tandem, Tropic
of Cancer and the Tropic of
Capricorn. He noted how in 1953
the books were outlawed, while
in 1962 this opinion apparently
changed.
Doctor Kirk said he would
like to see a pornographic cam-
—Continued on Page 3
Thomists hold
election meet
Election of officers for the
Thomist Club will take place at
the club's next meeting, scheduled for tomorrow night at 7:30,
in the ASUSF office, according
to Thomist moderator, Father Albert Smith, S.J. The newly elected officers will serve for the
spring semester.
The Thomists, a philosophy
discussion club designed for both
the loquacious and taciturn student, is not limited merely to
those who adhere in varying degrees to the system of the Angelic    Doctor.
This week's meeting will also
receive new members and interested onlookers. Membership is
open to both day and evening
students. Honorary membership
goes to students from neighboring colleges. "We welcome followers of Kant, Nietzsche, and
Carnap," commented one veteran
member.
-Special report-
Constitutional
Revision
The ASUSF constitution committee is preparing a new
constitution with radical innovations aimed at bringing student government into harmony with student opinion. If approved, the innovations under consideration will grant wide
powers to the President, so that he will actually be responsible for his Administration. Many offices now elective would
be appointive, and would constitute a presidential cabinet,
If the President and his cabinet did not live up to the expectations of the student-body, he and his cabinet could be
easily removed and a new election held.
The legislature, under the new system, will have a voice
in student affairs with the "power of the purse" to back it
up. The President and cabinet will submit a budget to the
legislature for approval. The Vice-President will preside
over the legislature, and the legislature will appropriate all
finances.
The President and Vice-President will be the only elected
student-body officers; class representatives to the legislature
will continue to be elected.
These are the essential points of the system being considered. No final draft will be prepared before open meetings are held to hear the opinion of any interested student.
While giving the President maximum authority, it will impose on his shoulders maximum responsibility, and, it is
hoped, the old "buck-passing" of past administrations will
merely illustrate political ineptness.
Past constitutional committees have exhausted themselves
studying rival constitutions from Harvard, Cal. We feel, however, that the solution to our particular problems lies in an
analysis of USF's particular brand of student government.
The present committee mixes a Thomistic stance (starting
with existing realities) with a Machiavellian air (no-nonsense,
pragmatic solutions). We urge the student-body to objectively
weigh the proposed solutions reported by the committee.
Open hearings will be announced soon; the student-body must
take an open-minded interest in these proceedings. All else
having failed, the VOX POPULI must revivify old institutions to meet the challenges of the present.
Mardi Gras draws
crowd, nets profit
Some 3000 souls danced and played games in Phelan Hall
last weekend at the most successful Mardi Gras ever to be
staged by the Associated Students of the University of San
Francisco.
A net profit of approximately $1400 was realized during
the two nights of pre-lenten fun.
The on-campus carnival and dance
drew a far greater participation
than the 1961 version, held in the
Sheraton-Palace Hotel at a loss
of $2000.
More than $600 spent on publicity attracted capacity crowds
to the Hilltop for entertainment
which featured Bobby Freeman,
Stan Wilson and The Diamonds.
A perceptible change of spirit
could be felt as early as Friday
afternoon when decorations were
hung in the Phelan Hall dining
room and booths began to appear
in the Green and Gold room.
Friday night's basketball game
was highlighted by the coronation of Mardi Gras Queen Lucy
Lowery at half time. The crowd
moved from the gymnasium to
the Green and Gold room, where
the various games of chance had
opened for business at 8:00. The
new influx of revelers filled the
room to capacity and hundreds
rubbed elbows as they moved
from one booth to the next, carrying the tokens of their victories:
stuffed animals, glassware, hats,
etc. The sponsoring clubs showed
a total profit of $879.85, after ex
penses had been deducted from
the gross receipts of $1737.11. A
baseball toss sponsored by the
Sophomore class was the biggest
money maker with net receipts of
$111.
Revelers were able to leave the
smoke filled lower rooms, ascend
the stairs and enter the dining
room to twist to the music of Ray
Frederic. Balladier Stan Wilson
and Bobby Freeman supplied the
featured entertainment for Friday evening, while the Diamonds
appeared for two shows Saturday
night.
Seven hundred fifty people paid
$1101 to see balladier Stan Wilson and Bobby Freeman at Friday night's dance.
More than 10,000 paying customers paid a total of $1586.09 to
twist and watch the Diamonds
wail through two shows Saturday
nigt.
ASUSF Treasurer Lee Bros-
—Continued on Page;3
see Ralls
page 2