The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 3, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 25, 1948 Page: 8 of 8
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Eight
THE THRESHER
Williams
(Continued from Page 6)
to accept' the standards, the values,
of society, of the majority, of the
crowd. People don't want to be in-
dependent minds and individual per-
sonalities; they want to think, and
say, and read, and do exactly what
everybody else does. They actually
want society to dominate them; they
want to conform."
What about Russia and Com-
munism ?
"Everybody seems to think we
shall have a war with Russia as
soon as she has collected a nice
stockpile of atomic bombs. So far
as I can see, the only way we may
avoid war is to have such a fright-
ful depression that a revolution in
this country would make a war un-
necessary. Perhaps a war would be
pleasanter, after all. But if a war
does come, one <ihing is certain: af-
ter the war, whoever wins, an enor-
mous amount of strong-arm force
is going to be required to weld the
pieces together once again. We have
not yet seen anything in the way
of suppression of independence and
oppression of the individual; just
wait till after the next war."
His View of Politicians
- Your reporter asked Mr. Williams
why politicians emphasize among
their greatest assets that they were
poor farm boys" or went to work
"at the age of nine in a small
town" ?
"The explanation is simple," he
said. "The popular tradition of our
society is that the poorest individ-
ual can rise to the highest position.
People believe this because it is a
part of the social pattern; if poli-
ticians hinted that it is not true,
they couldn't be elected dogcatcher.
But the actual fact is, of course,
that most people rise to high posi-
tion only when fortunate circum-
stances provide the opportunity./To
be born in a good middle class fam-
ily, to have financial backing, to
be sent to the best schools and uni-
versities, to know the right people,
to marry the boss' daughter, are
still the best ways to promote ad-
vancement in our society. But no
politician, especially a Texas poli-
tician, can afford to say that. Most
people don't want to be told the
truth; they want to be told only
what conforms to their pre-conceived
pattern of beliefs."
Asked for a brief summation of
his views, Mr. Williams said, "The
chief problem of the individual, as
I have already suggested, is how to
Engineer! to Hold
Initial Meet Tuesday
The Engineering Society, after
opening the year by signing up a
record of 99 paid memberships, will
holds its first meeting of the year
be decent without being dull; and
the chief problem of society is how
to be economical and efficient with-
out destroying personal individual-
ity and independence. Most individ-
uals are not solving their problem
today, and society is not solving its
problem. Furthermore, both the in-
dividual and society are getting
farther and farther away from a so-
lution every minute. In other words,
I am not an optimist—but perhaps
you had guessed that already?"
Tuesday at 7:30 in 110 Anderson
Hall.
The meeting will be short. There
will be no speaker and only the
necessary start-of-the-year business
will be attended to.
Any engineering student is<iligi-
ble for paid membership in the
society. The meeting will provide
the first chance for Freshmen and
Sophomores, and most of the Jun-
iors to join this year.'
An engineer must be a member
three "years in order to be eligible
for the society key, which is award-
ed the Senior year.
Orville Gaither is president of the
society, now in its third year of
operation after a two-year wartime
lapse. Other officers include Bill
Ayers, vice-president; Earl Beck,
secretary; and Malcolm Cezeaux,
treasurer.
Naturally, I smoked
CHESTERFIELDS while
working on my new picture,
BEYOND GLORY. They're
always MILDER...
It's MY cigarette.
STARRING IN
BEYOND GLORY
A PARAMOUNT PICTURE
ABC G,RL 0f TeXaS °niVerS'ty Sai,S~
"I smoke Chesterfields because I have
always found them definitely MILDER and
besides I like their better taste "
U
'sfer/ieid
. f
YOURS
MILDER
11
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_ C ; -
Copyright 1948, Uccm «t Mvtia Tobacco Co,
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 3, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 25, 1948, newspaper, September 25, 1948; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230758/m1/8/: accessed May 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.