The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 31, 1995 Page: 3 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Rice University Woodson Research Center.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
OPINION
THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1995 3
Unlike Jefferson and Lincoln, Grover Cleveland gets no respect
Five months ago, I wrote a
column in which I gushed about the
benevolent deeds done by Jimmy
Carter subsequent to his lackluster
political career. It was important, I
felt, to bring his accomplishments to
light. Few leaders have revealed
themselves to be such shining ex-
emplars of virtue as Carter, but even
those who bring about
some modest amount
of good are unlikely to
be recognized in these
cynical times.
This week I turn
my attention to an-
other great unher-
alded statesman, one
who was all but ig-
nored by history but
who will someday, I
believe, be ranked
among the foremost
American public ser-
vants of the nine-
teenth century. I
speak of none other
than President Grover
Cleveland (1837-1908).
In the catalog of America's most
celebrated Presidents, known to ev-
ery schoolchild in this great nation,
Cleveland's name is conspicuously
absent.
Yet Thomas Jefferson, an unre-
pentant slaveholder and the leading
villain in the Marbury v. Madison
case, takes his place near the top of
the list. So, too, does Andrew Jack-
son, an irascible roughneck of dubi-
ous morals. As for Abraham Lin-
coln, that mole-ravaged freak, I am
entirely at a loss to account for his
sparkling reputation. Why is it that
our most venerable "historians," old
codgers nestled snugly in their theo-
retical wonderlands, have seen fit to
heap praise on these men?
Miles
NOWHERE
Mike
I^ABAVIAN
When the task of chronicling his-
tory rests in the hands of such "intel-
lectuals," with their ulterior social-
ist, communist, classicist, feminist,
elitist, idealist, and humanist agen-
das, perhaps we should not be sur-
prised that this absurd register of
presidential heroes has been foisted
upon us.
To be fair, though,
Cleveland was prob-
ably doomed long be-
fore the historians got
their hands on him.
Popular accounts in-
variably conceal the
fact that Knights
of Labor leader
Terrence Powderly
was Cleveland's
first great enemy.
Powderly was a closet
anarchist who se-
cretly masterminded
the bombing at
Haymarket Square.
What was dis-
cussed in the more
than 20 meetings that
occurred between Powderly and
Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky
during the 1880s? Skeptics who in-
sist that these meetings could never
have taken place because Trotsky
was not yet seven years old in 1886
conveniently ignore the fact that both
Powderly and the leading Russian
intellectuals of the decade had a com-
mon interest in showing Cleveland
up as a weakling who couldn't main-
tain order.
In fact, a great many ideologues
were threatened by Cleveland's
grand vision of a peaceful world full
of happy people. They knew all too
well that Cleveland, a greater genius
than any president since Monroe,
was fully capable of carrying out
such ambitious designs. It became a
top priority among the president's
enemies to put a stop to his agenda
in its very earliest stages.
Efforts to portray Cleveland a
"buffoon" with "no common sense"
who would "foul up the country"
were rightly dismissed as spiteful
name-calling, and it seemed in 1887
that everything was working in the
administration's favor. Had
Cleveland's push for tariff reform
* If I may venture a
personal opinion on
Cleveland's critics, I
hate them and wish they
would go to hell. '
succeeded at this time, two world
wars and a depression might well
have been averted. But it was not
meant to be.
When labor leader and political
innocent Samuel Gompers received
an anonymous midnight telephone
call requesting delivery of 1600 fine
cigars, all imprinted with the slogan
"Vote No on the Mills Bill,"
Cleveland's fate was sealed. The ci-
gars were distributed on the Senate
floor two days later; the first item in
Cleveland's great agenda went down
to a resounding defeat at the hands
of a corrupt Congress. The anony-
mous caller was never identified,
but it is worth noting that a young
Eugene Debs skulked out of town
shortly before the decisive vote, con-
fiding to a friend once he reached
Engineering
FROM PAGE 2
faculty will have failed if they do not
provide and instill these fundamen-
tal qualities.
I do agree that the B.A. degree in
engineering should be a viable alter-
native for those students not consid-
ering long-term involvement in en-
gineering practice.
Recognizing that this degree
could serve the entire campus bet-
ter, the Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department is but the
first to modify its requirements so
that more students can double ma-
jor in engineering and some other
discipline. (The modified degree
requirements are not yet in the Gen- -
eral Announcements; contact the
department for details.)
For those not wanting to major in
engineering, the School of Engineer-
ing is developing courses for the
general student body so that the
School, like the academic divisions,
contributes to the university's edu-
cational mission and intellectual life.
Among these are ELEC/ENGI 201
Introduction to Engineering Design
(the robots from Legos course),
ENGI 301 Team Management,
ENGI 310/410Team Projects (here,
students from several engineering
disciplines and non-engineering ma-
' [CJurrent student
discussions seem less
potent than those in the
"good old days."?
jors confront real-world design prob-
lems), and CAAM 210/211 Introduc-
tion to Engineering Computation.
All of this said, Ms. Christensen's
basic concern of student apathy and
lack of intellectual vibrancy has not
been addressed.
Unfortunately, I share her gen-
Attitude
FROM PAGE 2
students to learn. Presumably, the
humanities faculty at Rice would
settle on an extensive course of in-
doctrination in the crimes of white
European males against the rest of
humanity. Rice has conveniently
avoided such foolishness by main-
taining a distribution requirement
in which students and their advisors
decide what a well-rounded educa-
tion must include.
• I am personally tired of hearing
all the whimpering about the quality
of science instruction at Rice. Sci-
ence, like philosophy, can't be
learned from attending a lecture. You
have to read it, think about it, work
through hypotheticals and attend
lectures. I agree that science instruc-
tion would be improved if a more
relevant context were provided. But
I strongly disagree with what ap-
pears to be a common misapprehen-
sion that Rice's science faculty are
poor teachers. Many of the teachers
frequently trashed in the Thresher
are among the finest I have ever had.
Rice does have a problem. It has
not, and apparently does not, pro-
vided an intellectually stimulating
environment in a broad sense. I will
' Rice's workload
becomes overwhelming
more often due to
students' competitiveness
than to unreasonable
faculty expectations.
never forget in 1986 or so traveling
to Hoffheinz Pavilion at the Univer-
sity Houston to hear Bishop Tutu
speak about events in South Africa.
The lecture was well-publicized, but
only about 20 or so Rice students,
Chicago, "We really did a number
on Cleveland that time."
Powderly and Debs, along with
the descendants of their followers
and the followers of their descen-
dants, have succeeded for nearly a
century in denying Cleveland's name
the recognition it deserves.
While it is true that a city was
named in the former president's
honor, and that President Cleveland
was later fictionalized as the charac-
ter Joe Christmas in Faulkner's Light
in August, his critics are as strident
today as they ever were. They dwell
specifically on Cleveland's infamous
misstep in the Pullman Strike of 1894,
an action which Cleveland acknowl-
edged he perpetrated while he was
feeling "out of sorts."
If I may venture a personal opin-
ion on Cleveland's critics, I hate them
and wish they would go to hell. They
have swallowed the historians' lie,
blinding themselves to the great
promise Cleveland would surely
have fulfilled had it not been for his
numerous enemies.
Grover Cleveland was a great
American. It will be many years be-
fore we see his like again.
Michael Nabavian is a Sid Richard-
son College sophomore.
Disregard for others ruins
festive spirit of Beer-Bike
eral view. As a college student of the
'60s, when everything was ques-
tioned, current student discussions
seem less potent than those in the
"good old days." Undergraduates do
not attend the President's Lecture
Series or the Scientia Colloquium
Series. The DeLange Conference
Series, which is typically scheduled
during the semester but during a
break, has not been well-attended
by undergraduates.
There is no student-run film se-
ries, student-run lecture series. ...
Maybe rather than trying to overly
analyze the history or the causes of
lethargy, we should follow the gen-
eral tack Ms. Christensen suggests
and work together to create a more
active intellectual neighborhood.
Don H.Johnson
Associate Dean for Academic
Affairs,
George R. Brown School of
Engineering
Professor,
Electrical & Computer
Engineering and Statistics
To the editor:
Why is it that every year at Beer-
Bike there has to be a small group of
people whose complete lack of re-
spect for others must result in injury
or property damage?
It seems reasonable to ask that
folks keep things in perspective and
treat the event with the lightheart-
edness it deserves; but, since com-
ing to Rice, I have yet to see a single
Beer-Bike where no one I know has
had to seek medical attention or re-
pair something that has been dam-
aged because of the single-minded
determination of someone to go on a
rampage in the name of his or her
college.
This year was no exception. On
the morning of Beer-Bike, two stu-
dents from another college saw bags ,
of water balloons on the floor of a
roomatWiess and, seeing that there
was nobody there, entered the room
and took it upon themselves to step
on most of the balloons. The carpet
was soaked and ruined, and bongos
and only a handful of University of
Houston students, went. The place
was empty.
Nevertheless, we as individuals
must set our own priorities. If Rice
undergrads prefer to spend their
time making sure that every home-
work is exactly 100 percent correct
before turning it in, instead of doing
good work, learning and moving on
to something new, then that's our
problem, not the faculty's.
Rice is what the students, not the
faculty, make it. Rice's workload
becomes overwhelming more often
due to students' competitiveness
than to unreasonable faculty expec-
tations. Some profs are totally un-
reasonable and endeavor to pulver-
ize young egos while imparting little
knowledge. But, overall, campus life
at Rice is most poisoned by young
pepple who do not value a thought-
provoking conversation or a stimu-
lating extracurricular lecture.
Changing the curriculum won't
change that.
Tom Jagiella
WRC '88
and a stereo narrowly escaped de-
struction, despite both getting wet.
This type of stupid behavior has no
place at Rice, not to mention at Beer-
Bike. If this had happened off cam-
pus, it would be breaking and enter-
ing and criminal charges could be
made. As it is, the best we can prob-
ably expect is an apology, which
would in no way make up for what
happened.
Beer-Bike is supposed to be an
event of college unity and light-
hearted rivalry. The cheering, jeer-
ing and outdoor water fights are all
perfectly acceptable ways of demon-
strating this.
When people and their belong-
ings are jeopardized as they have
been every year since I have been a
student here, I wonder if it's worth
it.
Marc Hirsh
Wiess '95
And nine other members of
Wiess College members
7
c H
new
f
TEXAS FOOD THE WAY IT OUGHT TO BE
We're authentic, we're locally owned and
operated, and we're what Texas is all about. We
are currently interviewing for the following
positions, full and part time:
SERVERS
HOSTS/HOSTESSES
If you would like to join the team of one of
Houston's most exciting restaurants, apply in person
at 4747 San Felipe (southwest corner of San Felipe
& 610) Mon-Sat, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. High volume
experience and references required.
i $ A T • 8 MAT * 8 8 I ♦ * 0 A T
THE
PRINCETON
REVIEW
6 8 8-5500
info@review.com
Small Classes
Up-to-Date Mater!
Practice Exams
Unlimited Free Extra Help
Highly Trained Instructors
Guaranteed Results
OF
OUR
STU0ENTS
RECOMMEND US
Tin PHnaton Rtvtrw It Mt ifTBati* wilk Prtacttm UMvartlty w rrt.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Hale, David. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 31, 1995, newspaper, March 31, 1995; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246509/m1/3/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.