University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Bookstore Racket: Who's Losing Money?

Bravo to Mr. Pape's article on
the Corner Bookstore Racket! I
definitely agree that the bookstore
situation at U.Va. is pitiful and
would support any action taken to
reduce the corner's monopoly in
textbooks. By way of support to
Mr. Pape's article, I wish to take
issue with his statement that "publishers...set
their prices, making it
difficult if not impossible....to sell
cut rate books. Consider the following
points:

1) There are several mail order
houses (see The New York Times
Sunday book section for their ads),
not connected with the publishers,
who consistently sell textbooks at
a 10% discount.

2) At the Princeton University
Bookstore, books were sold at a
significant discount from the publisher's
price. In addition, since the
store was a co-op, the purchaser
received an additional rebate at the
end of the year.

3) At the City College of New
York bookstore, significant discounts
were available even though
the store was not a co-op.

4) Even on the Corner, a 10%
discount is available to all faculty
members.

It would be hard to believe that
in all these cases, the seller is losing
money on the sale of textbooks. I
suggest therefore, that there is an
alternative not only to the Corner's
handling of profits, but also to their
prices. In any case, I agree that
something should be done.

Free Enterprise?

For years I have wondered why
two bookstores, adjacent to each
other and under the same management,
would have different
names. Possibly it is to give the
appearance of competition to
matriculating first year men. I suppose
I accepted this as a rule of
enterprising businessmen. More important,
however, is the mystique
which exists giving the Corner
bookstores the exclusive rights to
sell hardback books to the University.

The nature of this agreement
between the Board of Visitors and
the Corner bookstores has never
really been clarified, and the tactics
used by the Corner bookstores to
gain access to class book lists of
faculty who prefer to do business
with the Newcomb Hall Bookstore
should be scrutinized. It does not
appear that the establishment is
fostering the ideals of free enterprise.

D and B Fantastic

I was sorry to read in Monday's
CD that Ray Bonavita did not
enjoy the Delaney & Bonnie concert.
I saw the show and was not
"sorely disappointed," but instead
awed and very impressed.

True, they were plagued by very
poor sound equipment, and it's
hard to blame those who left halfway
through. But I think most of
those who stayed and caught their
extended version of "Where There's
a Will" noticed a great difference.
The song was fantastic, D&B were
smiling at each other, and I had the
feeling that they had finally gotten
it all together, even if only for a
short time and for a few people.

Maybe it's all a matter of taste.
I'm sorry that the show didn't go as
well as it should have, but I still
thought it was a fantastic show, and
that says a lot for Delaney and
Bonnie.

'Symbol Of Pride'

I would like to ask the
Editor-in-Chief of the Cavalier Daily
how he has the gall to decide that
"the Confederate flag has become a
symbol for racism." Being more
mature than I was when I first came
to this University I am not insulted
at such a declaration but feel in the
spirit of Mr. Jefferson not to "tolerate
any error so long as reason is
left free to combat it."

For anyone who has read any
history of the life of Jefferson
Davis or the Confederacy and who
loves this section of the country the
flag is, as I am sure you can
understand, a symbol of pride. You
have yielded this symbol of pride to
the people of the South to a small
minority, ("the Klan, segregationist
groups who always display the
symbol at rallies and the like").
Would you surrender the American
flag to the repressionists or those
who have urinated on it on Wall
Street In New York. Symbols are to
be protected if we value them.

I am sorry that for some blacks
this flag is a bad symbol, but this
they must understand is a misconception
on their part. With rational
thinking they will find no offense
in this symbol unless they have
found the South as a whole offensive,
in which case I hope they
would leave. Hopefully, irrational
hypersensitivity will yield to reason.

Proud To Be
'Mr. Fraternity'

In accordance with your truculent
crusade to discredit the fraternity
system at the University, Monday's
"Cavalier Daily" had its usual
quota of anti-fraternity material,
including a photograph of my date
and me titled, "Mr. and Mrs. Fraternity."

Despite your sarcastic intent, I
would like to say that I am proud
to have been choses as a representative
of the fraternity system, at
least as far as the "C.D." is concerned.

Like so many other student and
so-called "underground" publications
throughout the country, objective
news reporting and rational,
concerned editorials and features
material in the "C.D." are fast
becoming supplanted by such
vacuous drivel as "One Slightly
Used Gutter," which serves no purpose
other than to level a bitterly
emotional and perverted attack on
rush and fraternities in general.
Why couldn't you have used the
same space to point out some of
the short-comings of fraternities (of
which, admittedly, there are many),
and offer some constructive
changes in a rational manner?

Perhaps Mr. Ruggles wrote the
article during his own weekend
"tour of alcoholic gluttony," and
submitted it as filler like the numerous
photographs of "lawn strollers"
or "turning leaves" which are
always so prevalent on the front
page.