WUU
of the Salemite a j'ear of unsui'passed
cooperation is ended. Into the twenty-three
issues of the paper has j?one fun as well as
hard work.
This year’s aeeonii)lishments are the result
of contributions from students, faculty, ad
ministration, buildings’ staff, hlun Printing
Company personnel and many others. These
issues of the Salemite would never have been
possible without . . .
Lee, an associate editor to whom there
has never been another comparable. She has
exhibited inexhaustible ideas for features,in-
defatigable stamina for putting in eight-hour
Thursdays, and a capacity for accumulating
more printers’ ink on arms and face than
anyone else on the staff.
. . . Mary Lib, for faithfully checking the
events calendar each week and for always
saying “Never mind assigning that article,
[’ll do it” seven times when we’re making
news assignments.
. . Jane and Lola, who were constantly
writing articles, dreaming up rhyming heads,
typing, running errands and being even-tem
pered.
. . . Marion, who chased copy all over the
campus; Kitty, Fay, and Ann who kept ns
informed on world events; Sis Hines, who
climbed four flights to Piedmont Engravers;
Muggins and Jean who covered music hour
each week; Adrienne and Sammy, the ones
who reported each A. A. event; Eleanor, who
always obliged and did it well; Polly, who
kept us supplied with original cartoons.
. . . Margaret, who has not only made \ip
the papers, but who also wrote, typed, and
put in stints at the Sun.
. . . Bessie, Winkie, and Sybel, who alter
nately provoked our thoughts and kept us
amused.
. . . Clinky, Sis Pooser, Betty Page, Clara
and many others who have been the paper’s
backbones in providing features and news
stories.
. . . Betty Griffin, who has kept us far from
red ink by her adeptness at collecting money
and her wariness in dispursing it.
. . . Carolyn, Jane and their advertising
staff, who have endlessly tramped, the streets
of Winston-Salem and persuaded merchants
that it pays to advertise.
. . . Clara and her eireulation staff, who
have been responsible for seeing that students
and faculty members received their Saleraites
when the ink was hardly dry.
. . . Fae, who has stamped and addressed
hundreds of papers to alumnae, advertisers
and other schools.
. . . Mr. Cashion, who—with others at the
Sun—has given us invaluable help and witty
remarks, and who has been patience incarnate.
. . . Miss Byrd, who has been the first per
son to whom we would run when everything
went wrong and we were miserable, and the
first person to whom we would run when
everything went right and we were elated.
. . . Dr. Gramley, who has cheerfully ac
cepted our frequent visits to his office and
has just as cheerfully given us pointers on
headlines, make-up, news writing and policy.
. . . the Public Relations office staff, who
beguiled the local papers to take pictures in
time to meet the Salemite deadline.
. . . the Journal-Sentinel, which furnished
us with mats each week because our budget
couldn’t stand the strain of frc(pient picture-
taking.
. . . Woodrow Wilson, who has patiently
listened to our spur-of-the-moment pleas for
pictures, and who has never failed to get them
developed and to the engravers on time.
. . . the students, who read the Salemite,
offered suggestions for it and kept up acti
vities with which to fill it.
. . . the faculty, who encouraged us in our
efforts, both when they read the paper and
when they contributed to it in writing and
orally.
. . . Miss Essie, Harry Lee and Mr. Gor-
such, who inhabited the Catacombs with us.
They helped us enjoy our work whCe we
were there, and they kept our office elean.
I’d like to thank everybody. The year
couldn’t have been better.
Clara Belle LeGrand
Salemite
Dear Editor:
The Pierrettes wish to express
gratitude to certain members of the
faculty and staff for their gener
ous contributions of time and ef
fort towards the success of George
Bernard Shaw’s, “Pygmalion,”
whicli, due to unforseen difficulties,
has been postponed until March
19 and 20:
To Mr. Lawrence, for contri
tions of scenery;
To Mr. Gorsuch, for painting
flats; ^
To Lamar Berry, for designing
and making the costumes;
To Mr. Curlee, who used his
bandsaw for cutting plywood
circles;
To Mr. Peterson, for using Room
100 so the Pierrettes could use
Old Chapel for rehearsals.
To these and all others who have
aided in the production we extend
sincerest thanks.
The Pierrettes
Dear Editor :
We admit quite frankly that the
food in the dining hall is not per
fect, but neither is anything else
in life. As we all know, with ris
ing prices, Salem’s food costs have
risen too. In order to combat this
rise in prices, Salem has to have
one meatless day a week and to
eliminate milk at one meal each
day. Even these changes do not
off-set the increasing prices.
If you talk to girls from other
schools, you will find that the same
(Continued on page three)
Dear Editor:
The aim of Salem College, as
stated in her catalogue, is “the en
richment of the individual students
preparation for a useful life, in
tellectually, vocationally, culturally,
! morally, physically and spiritualy.
The principles which are to sub
stantiate this goal, are “personal
honor,” and a “proper sense of re
sponsibility,” on the part of each
individual student. These phrases,
, though stock, are frought with pos
sibilities, and if transmuted to act-
juality, highly beneficial; but if the
' rules and traditions which underlie
these principles are not respected
and understood by the students, a
realization of the goal becomes im
possible.
At Salem of late, there is a
marked disunity, a diffusion of in
terests that precludes a common
interest in, and regard for, the in
stitution and its purpose. This is
evidenced by the petty practices
and general lethargy so prevalent
here: Seniors’ signing in chapel
and there upon taking their leave;
displays of boredom and disgust
during chapel programs, meals,
classes, and student government
meetings; the reluctance of seniors
to wear caps and gowns during
chapel; violation of light-cut rules;
the scanty turnout of students and
faculty members at various college
functions—teas, lectures, dramatic
presentations, basketball games,
elections, the annual tree-planting
(Continued on page three)
” Death Of A Salesman”
By Betty Griffin
Mr. Miller’s play is a tragedy,
both modern and ])ersonal, not
classic and Leraic. It’s central
figure is a little man sentenced to
discover his smallness rather than
a big man undone by his greatness.
Willy Loman, the central char
acter in the play, is a friendly man,
being the father of two sons. He
is 63 and has grubbed hard all his
life. He has never possessed either
the daring or the gold-winning
luck of his brother who wanders
through the play as a somewhat
shadowy symbol of success but a
necessary contrast.
Willy has lived on his smiles
and his hopes; surviving from sale
to sale; sustained by the illusion
that he has countless friends in
his territory, that everything will
be all right, that he will be a
success and that his boys will be
a success also.
When the play begins, Willy
Loman has reached the ebb-tide
years. He is too old and worn
out to continue traveling. His
back aches when he stoops to lift
the heavy sample cases that were
once his pride. His tired, wander
ing mind makes it unsafe for him
to drive the car which has carried
him from one town and sale to
the next. His sons see through
him and despise him. His wife
sees through him and defends him,
knowing him to be better than
most and at any rate well-inten
tioned. What is far worse, Willy
is fired from his job and begins
to see through himself. He realizes
he is, and has been, a failure. He
has deliberately smashed up in his
car in order to bring in some
money for his family and make
the final payment on his home
when there is almost no one left
who wants to live in it.
Although “Death of a Salesman”
is set in the present, it also finds
time and space to include the past.
The reader is interested in more
than just the life and fate of Willy
Loman. One can readily see how
we disappoint those we love by
having disappointed ourselves. We
see the torment of family tensions,
the compensations of friendship
and also the heartbreak that goes
with broken pride and lost con
fidence. We are aware of the
loyal ties, not blind but open-eyed,
which are needed to support mor
tals in their loneliness. The case
of Willy Loman and his family is
a sensitive, human aiid powerful
one.
Willy’s misfortune is that he has
gone through life as an eternal
adolescent, as someone who has
not dared to take stock, as some
one who never knew who he was.
His personality has been his pro
fession; his energy and his pro
duction. His major ambition had
been not only to be liked, but well
liked. His ideal for himself and
Continued on page three
News In U. S.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor-in-Chief Clara Belle LeGrand
Associate Editor Lee Rosenbloom
Associate Editor Mary Lib Weaver
By Anne Blackwell
Plans are being developed for the
reorganization of the Pentagon.
During the next few weeks some
definite changes in the top-level
structure of the Department of De
fense are expected to be announ
ced. The purpose of the new plan
is to cut down the red tape that
now exists. It will spread respon
sibility in some cases and centralize
it in others.
The Secretary of Defense, Gen
eral of the Army George C. Mar
shall, and his deputy, Robert A.
Lovett, have been greatly troubled
with the mass of confusion that
they “stepped into” early last fall.
There is hope that the plan will
improve interrelations between
boards, committees,- sections and
divisions in the Department of De
fense. The system will not be
completely changed, but only re
formed in regard to the divisions
and their methods of coordination.
For instance, on the Research
and Development Board the per
sonnel assigned to the task of pro
viding technical information on
weapons for the Joint Chiefs of
Staff had to devote more time to
administrative paper work than to
their primary work.
Some internal changes will be re
commendations of the Commission
on organization of the Executive
Branch of the government, headed
by Herbert Hoover. Another
source of the changes will be
management engineering, which
was introduced to the Defense De
partment in mid-1949 by former
Secretary of Defense Louis John
son.
A permanent management divi
sion has not yet been created in
the Department. This type of di
vision is designed to point out
wasteful military practices. The
present committee is said to be in
a transition because of a change
from a “pre-Korean budget-paring
mood” of the Defense Department.
Continuance of the committee now
would provide supervision of the
armed forces as they proceed with
their program of expansion.
(Continued on page five)
By Winkie Harris and Sybel Haskins
It was a few weeks before graduation, Acti
relaxed on the long white table in the Salem,
ite office and contemplated the hubbub around
her The newly elected staff was at work.
Acti smiled tolerantly. She remembered
being young and gay and active. She re
membered coming to Salem . . .
three and a half years ago two aspir
ing sophomores walked hesitantly into the
lower depths of main hall to join the adver
tising staff of the Salemite... They were
greeted with a slip of paper and the command,
“AVrite the column and. hand it in tomorrow.”
Came a clap of thunder! The wind blew,
The two sophomores crept into the dim re
cesses of Sisters’ House writing furiously. The
rain rained and the willow tree willowed. A
brick fell and Aetivitus was born.
With such a beginning, the child’s future
wms inevitable. Through the years she has
undergone the torment of the durned.
She emerged bruised and battered from
basketball. While coordinated classmates
cavorted through modern dance, Acti dis
lodged her knee-cap.
She was exposed to the terrors of the LIB
RARY- Acti would be investigating the
sources of Plutarch’s “Lives” while her room
mate, Gertrude, rattled the pages of “Charm”
and sang the “Triumphal March” from Aida,
“Please,” the librarian would whisper in
pained tones to Acti, “leave the library. Your
scratchy pencil is disturbing everyone . . .”
A silence brought Acti back to reality; the
hubbub wms walking out of the Salemite of
fice. Moaned the editor, “Still no column-
what are we going to do?”
Acti smiled tolerantly and went on reminis
cing ...
. . . She remembered her first blind date,
Theodore Henry. Six feet tall, with his
elevateds, an engaging gold-toothed smile and
no chin, Acti continued to date him. Their
mutual attraction for roach-lore drew them
together for four years.
Her junior year Acti got sick for a week,
The infirmary was only half as bad as Gert
rude had predicted, but Acti didn’t get to
see Theodore rmtil June—she had no cuts left,
She did, however, get the part in the play,
The two lines involved considerable trouble
in interpretation, imagination and character
ization, not to mention months of gruelling
rehearsal.
Acti didn’t really mind when somebody
messed up a cue and left out her part the
night of the performance because she had
been chosen for the May Court—nobody else
would be on it. Acti realized why after her
attack of poison ivy.
But the May Day dress came in handy
when the laundry tore up all her cottons. I
was embarassing to go to her Saturday 8:30’s
and Friday afternoon labs in evening attire ..,
A distant moan interrupted Acti. “Whal
are we going to do without a column?” Acti
smiled tolerantly and . . .
. . . She remembered comparing Marx and
St. Augustine while through the window canit
strains of “Ring Around the Roses”.
“Why didn’t I major in primary ed?” sighed
Acti watching the Phys. Ed., methods class at
work.
She repeated the statement more foreibl,'
when during practice teaching, her class oI
football majors began using her as tackh
dummy.
Her misery was alleviated by hen-session|
in the dormitory, Acti loved sitting up until
three in the morning discussing Life, even
though it always happened before six weeks
tests or exams. The other nights she sat up
until three discussing sex.
And of course Acti
griped about light rules, term paperSi
chapel speakers, modern conventions, aboul
herself, narrow-minded people, stupid peppl®:
5p
'M
a®
intellectual’ ’people.
listened to the radio, sometimes; read
newspapers, sometimes; went to the shok:'
often.
(Continued on page three)