Columbia Spectator Resolves Squabble; Gets In Jam, This Time With U. S. Navy

NEW YORK, November 7--The Columbia Spectator, whose troubles were revealed in the September 28 isue of the SERVICE NEWS, has compromised itself on its management problem and has got itself into a new tiff, this time with the U. S. Navy.

The first situation began last summer, when the Spectator could not decide on a new Managing Board and lost control of its destinies to a V-12er who was also captain of the football team and co-captain of the crew and a favored son of the Columbia Dean's office.

Smith Still Editor

Stanley Smith is still editor-in-chief of Spec, but he no longer has the unchecked power he enjoyed during the summer; for Edward Gold and Frederick Klecberg, both members of the last and "legitimate" Managing Board, are back on the staff as associate editor and managing editor, respectively.

As was reported earlier, the old Managing Board still hopes the present situation will be changed in its favor; this week Morningside Heights campus sources revealed that the boys kicked into the back room by last summer's Student Board action have definite plans for a comeback.

"Outs" Disclose Plans

A member of the "outs," who cannot be named, said last night that "our aim now is to wait until the Navy leaves in February or March. At that time we intend to throw all our weight in favor of a revision of the Student Board constitution, which says that the Student Board shall control student activities.

"That must be modified, in our opinion, in the light of recent developments. The right of control does not mean the right to dictate policy, or the right to eliminate people from positions because they happen to disagree with you. The Emergency Council (wartime substitute for the Student Board) of last June has so interrupted its rights. We want to modify its constitution in such a way that never again can commit such arbitrary and arrogant acts again."

The whole history of the situation has been very confused, with the Managing Board sired by the Dean's office-controlled Emergency Council claiming that it has broken up the clique-monopoly of Columbia's extra-curricular activities, and with the ousted Spec editors protesting loss of freedom of the press.

"Sea Breeze" and Gold Brald

The Spectator's run-in with the U. S. Navy, which has little connection with the preceding issue except that both may be said to involve censorship has to do with a column called "Sea Breeze" for Navy men which has been run in Spec for several months: something like the Lucky Bag which used to run in the SERVICE NEWS.

Captain T. F. Wellings, USN, recent commander of the U. S. S. Wyoming, was assigned to run Columbia's V-12 and NROTC programs at the beginning of the present term. The naval undergraduates at Columbia found Captain Wellings "an old salt who insists on complete compliance with his orders, and with a minimum of controversy and dissension," according to a member of the Spec staff.

The Case of the Dirty Bulkhead

In the first few days of his incumbency, Captain Wellings noticed a dirty wall (or "bulkhead") and immediately ordered all the V-12ers and NROTCs to scrub the walls and floors ("decks," dammit) of the dorm ("ship") in which they were quartered. This was just before exams, and it didn't help final grades a bit.

It promoted a bit of verse from the anonymous author of "Sea Breeze:"

"It matters not that finals loom

"And studies call.

"Gold braid has seen a dirty room

"And wall.

"Then learning stops and books must go

"And gather dust,

"When duty whispers, not so low,

" 'You must!'

"So grab your palls and swab your decks

"And flunk your courses,

"And know there are more horses' necks

"Than horses."

This irritated Captain Wellings; in fact, he considered it an attack on his person and he called editor Smith down for the article in no uncertain terms. For a while it looked as though Smith might be kicked off the paper, but Dean Nicholas McD. McKnight and others intervened and the cooler heads prevailed in the end.

A compromise was reached, says a member of the Spec staff, by which Smith was appointed Navy censor of all "Sea Breeze" material. Wellings achieved his end: Navy material would be censored. Smith remained in command on Spectator.

The Navy is still trying to discover the author of "Sea Breeze," and rumor has it that one of the men suspected of writing the column has been restricted purely on the grounds that he is considered as a likely author of the barb in the Navy's side