Wednesday, Februarj- 25, 1953
PASE TWO
MAROON AND GOLD
Maroon And Gold
Edited and printed by ftudenU of Elon
College. PubUihed bl-wtakly during the
college year under the auspices of the
Board of Publication.
Entered aa second class matter at the
Post Office at Elon College, M. C., under
the Act of March 8, 1879. tWUvered by
mall, $1.50 the college year, 50c the
quarter.
kditoriai, boari»
Matt Currln
F^ynn Ca-ihlon
James Rhodes
ratsy Mcltor
CooptT Wallct'r
Reuben Askew
I.uthor N. Byrd
Editor In Chief
. Associate Editor
. Asiistant Editor
Music Editor
Alt Editor .
Staff Photographer
Faculty Advisor
BUSIM^KS BOARD
Jamer Rhodes Business Manager
Joe Drankley Circulation Manager
Carl E. Owen Printing Advisor
Lynn Caihion Press Operator
.SPORTS STAKE
Gary Sears
Mike H.iuseo
non Merrimon
Sports Editor
Asst. Sports Editor
Sports Assistant
REPORTERS
Ronnie Black
Doris Chrismon
David Crowle
Ervin Durham
Cletus Peacock
Carroll Reid
Pill Rcnn
Bobby Rogers
John Roberts
I.illlan Tiogdon
Wendell Trogdon
John Truitt
WKDNKSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1953
OURSELVES
AND OUR HONOR SYSTEM
(A Guest I^iiltorial)
To say that the student government of
EInn College is at a crucial point is to say
nothing new. Even If we have not heard
this moie than once, any cne of us should
be able to realize that this statement Is
true. But why? Surely we have good stu-
lent material to draw from for leadership.
We are not lacking in knowledge of how
to proceed as citizens of a small govern
ment and as conlrclicrs of our own af
fairs. We have access to tympathetic and
helpful advice
Ifcre Is composed a varied student body;
varied in ages, backgrounds, experiences,
religious beliefs, and goals. If variety,
then. Is the spice of life and provides
personalities with the extra something
needed to make things “click," we really
have a gold mine of possibilities. This
mass of differences would seem to be a
veritable wealth of clay, rc.idy to be
molded Into whatever form we desire.
All of us no doubt, have bcnefitted by
a*;soclatlons here. A good many of us have
been helped in the growing-up process by
contact with other persons whom we might
never have met otherwise. We can. as a
student body, take mature views on import-
rnt is.sue«—whether we do or not is an
other qurstion.
Again, why do we find ourselves con
fronted with a system which (alls far
fhort of whiit It could and should be? It
seems to me that the reason we arc in
this stage is that we have forgotten that
sues virtues as honor, lespect, truth, and
decency were existing long before we
ever came Into being and (uund ways to
avoid them.
A student government, like a chain, can
not be any stronger than its weakest link.
The Honor System here is an important
link In the chain which i« our student
government, and the fate ot the Honor
System will definitely influence the fate
of our .-ituiient govemmnt. The two can
not be .separated. '
The Honor Council is not an agency which
will necessarily make Elon College a bet
ter place to be simply by frequent and
ruthles.s use of its authority. It is true that
a good many happenings are brought to
the Council, and decisions are reached
However, it is with a view to the future of
honor on Mon's campus and not with
malice to any group or individual that
such decisions are made.
Of course, it is hard and even impossible
for everyone to agree on the need for an
Honor Council and to respect the decisions
of such a group. An ideal school, with re
ference to honor systems, would be one in
which the students gradually could bring
about a condition of conduct that would
work its Honor Council out of a job. But
we are not living in an ideal situation.
Not one of ut is perfect, and for every
perv>n who sincerely tries to Uvc a clean
wholescmc life, there may be soi.ie other
cash
on the
spot
By LYNN CASHION
We as students of Elon College, owe a
debt of gratitude to the Board of Trustees
cf oui college, for its members have
hcaid our petition for the abrogation of
('.impulsory Church and Sunday School
i.nd have rendered a ruling entirely fav
orable to the students cause. They are
truly leatlers who lead with understanding
.••nd foresight.
However, 1 feel compelled to point out
to my lellow students that the discaiding
of this 60-year-old rule does not by any
means endorse absence from church. It
have merely transferred the obligation of
the individual student from a duty de
manded by the college into a duty that
the individual owes to himself or herself.
The Burlington Times-News, comment
ing in Its editorial column on Wednesday
afternoon of last week in regard to the
action of the Board of Trusteos, paid
high tribute to the members of that body
and piaised the wisdom of their act.
For the benefit of those who failed to see
the editorial in the Burlington paper. I
quote It tielow:
• Trustees of Elen College moved for
ward wisely and with understanding yes
terday when they discarded a tiO-year-oid
rule requiring students to attend Church
and Sunday School every Sunday on the
campus, when off campus, and to write
an explanation of any circumstances pre
venting their attendance.
“Elon College is a Christian denom
inational school. It has emphasized Re
ligious Education, as a character building
structure, along with Us progressive aca
demic curriculums.
“Action of the trustees supports a reso
lution of protest adopted by the student
legislature, adressed to the trustees on
January 15.
"The resolution said forced attendance
violates Christian principles because it
deprives students ot the private judgment
and liberty of conscience.
“The resolution pointed cut further, that
the requirement was detrimental to the
school s honcr system because it encour
aged students to forge attendance slips.
Students who failed to attend services two
Sundays were punished by the loss of
an academic quarter hour.
"Rules and regulations that impose or
seek to impede, church attendance defeat
their purpo.se however well-founded in
spiritual intent to be constructive. The
freedom, liberty-loving American dislikes
force in any form. He dislikes it more
when it seeks to dictate his adherence to
any religious ritual except of his own
choice, or church attendance.
“There is a wholesome, inspirational up
lift in the atmosphere cf worship. But
the appeal must be personal, voluntarily
expressive of the desire, if it becomes
iixed iind comforting in the everyday
life of the individual.
“Action of the tru.stees of Flon College
removes the cause of one campus sin, bit
terness against a regulation attempting
force in the matter of church attendance
and in many instances “forgeries’’ indi
cating attendance to avoid penalties.
The present “ireedom reigns’ in the
matter of church attendance on or off
the campus should witness gieater at-
Itaidance, suplementing iHo I who at
tend church and Sunday School regularly
without compulsion by those who feci bet
ter about it now that they may decide lor
themselves. The itudent legislatuie should
lend every possible encouragement to reg
ular attendance by all”
MORE IMPRE.SSIONS ABOUT AMERICA AND
re.-son who looks for the opportunity to do
what he and society know to be wrong.
It is necessary for this reason to have a
body with the responsibility of trying to
encourage right thinking, and to punish
violators. Decisions which appear harsh
to many people are not intended as such.
The future policies of this college depend
cn what we do wit'i challenges today.
Whether Or not Elon College will be re
spected in years to come depends upon
the choices made by her student body now.
Far more important, though, than the
existence of an Honor Council on the cam
pus Is the existence of honor and rig.ht-
thlnking in the minds and hearts of our
selves. We can do something about this,
but it will require time—time to educate
ourselves in holding high ideals and time
to develop a N'tter pholo.sophy cf con
duct. When we come around to realizing
that, after all. only those things which
are good and right have been strong
enough to last for years, then we may be
gin to think of ourselves as making pro
gress in a way becoming to college stu
dents—Judy Ingram.
Something About Customs In Holland
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the
third and final article of a ser- I
ies of features written by an j
Elon exchange student from |
Holland.)
By LUUK GROLT
Duiing my stay here at Elon
I have had a chance to observe
and take pait in American col
lege life, and I have been able
to observe many things in the
life of the people of the outside,
world, but I am anxious to learn
moie of everyday life in Amer
ica.
With that in view, I plan dur
ing the coming summer to go to
Califoinia to visit my Dutch girl
l'j)€nd, ,going| by the souijhern
loute and leturning with her by
the noithern loute. 1 had dreamed
of hitch-hiking to California, but
ummers. Right now it is snovv-
ling and freezing at home, and
SAF'E f'ROM FLOOD jmiss « that I cannot go skatmg
Since the publication of the
preceding issue of the Maroon
and Gold, Luuk Groot, who pre
sents here the last of her ar
ticles concerning her experi
ences as a Fulbright exchange
student, states tuat she has re
ceived news of her family and
that the family escaped injuries
and damage in the great floods
that swept over much of Hol
land recently.
At the time the floods struck
three weeks ago, she informed
Maroon and Gold staff mem
bers that she felt that her home
cr^nmunity would be far enough
inland to escape the floods that
struck when the winter storms
everybody fell down with a thud 1 broke the dikes in many places
and said that was something im- and loosed a ravaging wall 0
possible lor me to do. My parents
aie glad of that, but still it is a
pity to think of all my dollars
wnich 1 now have to spend cn
the Lu‘,
The Race Problem
Since 1 have not had a chance
to talk with many of the colored
people themselves, I have not
learned much about the negro
problem. Besides the good things
which are dene for them, there
are other things. I simply can
not say, lor instance, how much
i their housing, as 1 saw it in
Charleston, shocked me.
It does not seem to me that they
can be blamed too much for their
morals, which are perhaps lower
at times than those of the white
people, because their chances for
a higher education seem limited,
and many people still seem to
think that they have less rights in
society than the rest of the popu
lation. Only a short time ago, for
instance, 1 heard a bus driver say.
“You colored people move to the
back so the passengers can have
a seat” However, I understand
that this is a difficult problem
that cannot be solved in a short
time.
1 could go on and on telling
you of my impressions and opin
ions, now that I have been here
nearly six months, but I am con
vinced that a year is too short
to get to know everything, and
I often wish that I did not have
to leave in August. On the other
hand. I’ll be glad to see my family
again, because I miss them much
and often.
Telling Of Holland
Befoie I quit I’ll tell you some
thing more of my own Holland:
which Is situated north of Bel
gium, west of Germany and op
posite England, There is a saying
that “Gcd created the world with
’.he exception of Holland, which
vas created by the Dutchmen
themselves,” and there is a lot
of truth in it.
More than half of the country
is below sea level, so the land,
Ahich is gradually reclaimed from
sea water to sweep over the
country.
Such floods pose a tremen
dous problem for the Dutch
people, who must reclaim the
land from the sea and clear the
soil of salt before crops will
grow again. The author points
out this problem in this article,
in which she tells of efforts to
rebuild the country after the
German occupation d u ri n g
World War II.
the sea, has to be protected by
dikes against the water. The re
cent floods are an example cf the
problem that always confronts the
Dutch people. The windmills,
which are often replaced by pump
ing stations now, have the task
oi keeping the land dry.
Except for a few hills in the
east and south, the land is com
pletely flat, so when we want to
see mountains we have to go to
other countries, I will probably
get to see some mountains here in
America, At least I hope so.
Holland is the most densely
populated country in Europe, I’ll
mention some figures, for I no
tice that Americans seem fond
of them. The Dutch area is only
$13,025 square mUes, and it has
a population density of 769 to
the square mile, compared with
■(9 to the square mile in the
United States.
Many Good Roads
There are many good roads all
over Holland, and you see more
bicycles than anywhere else. This
is also due to the fact that dis
tances are much shorter than in
any other country.
One thing that has struck me
after visiting other countries
the fact that everything looks so
clean in Holland, the houses and
the gardens in particular, and the
gay, green meadows. One sees
great many very old towns with
walls and big gateways, and when
you enter those you feel as if
you were back in the Middle Ages.
The Dutch climate is a sea cli-
•nate, with mild winters and cool
Straight over the wide lakes Md
along the canals between the
snow-covered fields,
Holland is one of the oldest
democracies, and it has for cen
turies been a haven of refuge foi
those who have had to flee their
own countries for reUgious or po
litical reasons. It is reigned over
by Queen Juliana, but in fact, she
has to obey the government com
pletely.
Wearing Wooden Shoes
Many people have asked me
about the wooden shoes. Don't
think that everybody wears them,
lor mostly the farmers and fisher
men use them, that because they
are warm, dry and conafortable.
If you do not have feet too big,
ni be glad for you to try mine,
which I brought with me. One
also sees in some parts of the
country the typical Dutch cos
tumes. The one I brought, lor inr
stance, is worn in a fishing vil
lage at tiie coast. The younger
people nowadays, however, prefer
to wear the more usual and com
fortable clothes, so the use of the
old Dutch costumes is decreasing
Our country is now recovered
from the war, thanks to the work
ing spirit of the people and to the
help through the Marshall Plan,
but the country was much dam
aged, not only by the bombs but
also by the wSter. Just bejpre tht
Germans retired they destroyed
the dikes so that miles and mile;
of beautiful and fertile soil, with
many farms and villages, was
drowned, and it took several years
before submerged land could be
de-salted, a process which we:
necessary before we could use it
again to build op our orchards
and to grow vegetables such a
wheat and potatoes.
One Horrible Winter
In the horrible winter of 1944
the part ci the country north ol
the big rivers where I live, which
was not yet liberated by the First
Canadian Army was systematically
starved out by the Germans. The
average caloric value of the food
rations, which before the war had
been about 3,000 calories per per
son daily, had by the spring of
1945 fallen to 400 calories. Fin
ally on ]\Iay 5, 1945 we wert
liberated.
I’il ask in closing it I perhaps,
can put some of my books about
Holland, many with pictures, in
the Library, where they may be
seen by all the students, for those
will show and tell things better
than I can tell them.
I know that several facts and
opinions which I have told you
were not too well formed, but I
hope you will forgive me and
make clear the things with which
you may disagree, and I hope
too, that you will ask me about
any other things you want to
know. I
ed to tell ycu as much
am sure I will be delight-
as I can.
Line 0’ Type Or Two
■By PATSY MELTON'
He held a raindrop in his
hand, and as he did with other
lo\c'.y things, he cast it aside
without a thought. “For, ” he
thought, “what is a raindrop to
me? I am who I am, and this is
nothing."
If only he had looked deeply
into the jewel that had rested in
his palm! There was in its
depths the sweat from a con
tented workman's brow, a tear
from the eye of a prayerful
mother, and a fragment of the
eternal sea. The city was re
flected on Its shining surface,
and the meadows, the trees, the
sky, and the majestic mountains
made their Ijome there. A tiny
bit ot-the infinite.
But all this was lost on the
powerful, pitiful man. He knew
only his own strength, his weak
niigjL. Ik w'lLcd cut into the
storm, his head held high. The
raindrops he had so callously
di.sregardtd beat upon him with
savage intensity. His head low
ered. What had a moment ago
seemed unimportant was now a
gigantic, irresistable force. The
raindrops had become a stream,
a river, a sea, and the powerful
man drowned in the
a raindrop. Proud
The eternal is.
* » »
Leroy is a clown,
circus sense of the
nevertheless, he is „
People go to him when they
are depressed and Leroy makes
them laugh and '
troubles.
But to whom can
when his heart i^,
Who can* understand a clown's
suffering? He does not paint his
face, but the eternal smile he
wears is a mask, i
geon from which
escape.
Smile, Ltruy, s&iilc though a
depths of
power fails.
not in the
word, but
a clown.
forget their
Leroy turn
is breaking?
cell, a dun-
there is no
knife is turning in your mind.
gay and make us laugh! Who
cares if you have a soul, a
eart? These are the words he
hears day after day. Do you
know Leroy?
* ♦ ♦
The ugly duckUng swam
around the pond all alone. The
other birds and the beasts aU
laughed at her because she was
funny looking. She didn’t
fof sh ‘•'“""ing her,
for she knew that someday she
would be a beautiful swan She
tried so hard and planned such
a beautiful life for herself, an!
was contented and happy
for a time.
Then she grew up. No sone
came from her mouth and only
a ear was there to IfrigMen up
nLn hard
planned too high. She had not
developed into the lovely cre-
ature cf her imagination The
1 ^ and beasts stili
laughed at her. She swam down
the siieam alone.
the
moving finger
writes
By MATT CURRIN
O WIND THAT BLOWS
I
O Wind that blows
from cut the dark
and through the light.
Blowing over hill and dale
and through the countless
days and nights
That have no end.
The day was clear
and so the night that showed
the full and starry sky
tha^ran from earth up, up, up,
and all around,
The vast and infinite space,
portraying life.
Yes, all is clear on earth tonight.
II
Whence does it come?
Where does it go?
That wind which calls to me and you
In tones of bass and treble too,
In tones so loud but yet so soft,
0 Wind, what song for me this night?
III
1 lift my eyes and there behold a cloud
so dark and full of fear
that I cry out,
Ifor what is this 1 see?
The night was clear , . .
but now its purity has become ^
clouded with some dark thing.
Is it real? j
Or is it something lodged in eyes
that search and finally see?
The night was light and free and clear,
but now it has a malignant thing
Which seems to rock the sky,
the earth
and even life itself!
The majestic tones once full and free.
The very sounds of beauty and life
I saw have now become a force,
destroying ail within its wake . . .
The trees,
The birds, and all that once
was good and bad.
My heart cries out. . . .
“What will become,” I ask,
“of all that once was clear?”
IV
On blows the wind, but now a gale
from mountain peak to ocean shore
and shaking at the very core
Of all things north and south . . .
and even east and west.
“Where will it end?
Villl its result cause
death in every heart
and pain in every breast?”
V
0 Light, when wilt thou shine
and drive the darkness out of earth,
and sky
and ocean deep?
But I behold a startling truth
that Wnd and War are one,
rtnd only time will prove that light
can conquer dark.
And then the sky that once was blact
grows thin in one small spot.
And through That spot a flash of light
comes flooding into view, for
Light was over Dark.
VI
The dark had struck
and seemingly had ended all
that once was good and proud.
But instant of time for man the ligW
came through the dark.
And in a swdft and sudden flash . • •
the dark was gone
and light remained.
And down on earth Man once again ^
l>egan to build
the house, the store, the church.
Yes, all was light again.
The wind had come, the wind had gone.
And drowning out the funeral dirge,
the children’s voices san£.