Page Two.
T E
Friday, October 31, 1941.
Published Weekly By
The Student Body of t
Salem College
. Member
Southern Inter-Collegiate
Press Association
SUBSCKIPTION PEICE - $2. A YEAR - 10c A COPY
Coin
Member
Plssocided G:)lle6iale Press
Distributor of
CDllebide Di6est
MPfMSKfrrKD won national ADVKRTiatNa mr
National Advertising Service, Inc.
CoUege Publislnrs Representative
420 Madison Avk. New York. N.Vl
CRICAaO • BOSTON • LOt AN«ILKt • SAK FlIAIICItOO
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor-In-Chief Carrie Donnell
Associate Editor Barbara Whittier
EDITORIAL STAFF
New Editor Doris Shore
Sports Editor Louise Bralower
Music Editor Alice Purcell
Faculty Adviser Miss Jess Byrd
Sara Henry, Leila Johnston, Julia Smith, Frances Neal,
Daphne Reich, Katie Wolff, Mary L. Glidewell, Elizabeth
Tohnston, Barbara Lasley, Margaret Moran, Marie Van Hoy,
Helen Fokaury, Margaret Leinbach, Mary Lou Moore, Betty
Vanderbilt, Mary Worth Walker, Elizabeth Weldon, Mary
Louise Rhodes, Lucie Hodges.
FEATURE STAFF
Feature Editor Eugenia Baynes
Mildred Avera, Dorothy Dixon, Anita Kenyon, Nancy
Rogers, Nona Lee Cole, Elsie Newman, Ceil Nuchols, Mar
garet Ray, Dorothy Stadler, Elizabeth Griffin, Betsy Soach,
Kathryn Traynham, Reece Thomas, Marian Goldberg, Mary
Best.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Business Manager Nancy Chesson
Assistant Business Manager Dorothy Sisk
Advertising Manager Mary Margaret Struven
Exchange and Circulation Manager Dot McLean
ADVERTISING STAFF
Flora Avera, Becky Candler, Doris Nebel, Betty Moore,
Adele Chase, Mary E. Bray, Mary Lou Brown, Nancy Mc-
Clung, Sarah Lindley, Allene Seville, Elizabeth Griffin,
Dorothy Stadler, Margaret Kempton, Sara Barnum, Jennie
Dye Bunch. Lib Read. Harriet Sutton, Ruth O’Neal, Yvonne
Phelps, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Edith Shapiro.
CAN SOMETHING
BE DONE?
Time has come for someone to express pub
licly the general opinion of the day students.
I’m sure I can speak for all of us in. saying
that our new habitat has its advantages and
disadvantages.. We, everyone, appreciate the
fact that, by living in one large room, we are
able to see and associate with all the day stu
dents, freshmen and seniors alike.
This is well and good, but — Since the
place is principally a social room, we think
there should be more comfortable and respec
table furniture. The chairs and pillows are so
hard that we can’t even relax when we have a
spare moment. Could or would something be
done about this?
Too, since cold weather is coming rapidly,
coats, hats, etc., are being thrown around all
over the place simply because there is no other
place to put them. We really and truly need
some place to hang our coats. I’m sure we
would use it, thus making the place look a little
more presentable.
Another thing, during class hours, some
students try to study in the building. It is
difficult to do this, even though there may be
quietness while others are in class, because we
have no desk lamps by which we can study.
If we have to go to the library, about ten or
fifteen minutes of the hour is wasted getting
our books to go there and coming back in time
to get other books for the next class.
These three things, better furniture, a coat
closet, and better lights, we need greatly to
make the student’s center a more presentable
place and to make each day student better sat
isfied. Are we asking too much?
—J. S.
Aux derniers jours d’octobre le
vent soupire dans les arbres, et les
feuilles s^ches, fantomes des plaisirs
passes, vaguent sans repos sur la
terre. Encore une annie qui meurt
lentement . . . et toute la nature se
met en deuil. Les nuages courent le
ciel, mais §a et R le soleil, se fray-
ant un passage k travers, ^parpille
de I’or sur la campagne dSserte. Les
oiseaux sent partis, et out abandon-
u6 leurs nids aux neiges de I’hiver
qui a’approche; les fleurs et les her-
bes dormant, attendant les giboulees
de mars; tout le monde regrette les
jours perdus de I’etg. Les pluies de
I’automne tombe sur la terre, et une
tristesse p6se sur mon eoeur.
Je ne peux pas entendre les soupirs
longs de novembre, parce qua les
chansons mfilodieuses d’avril sont
plus suaves que les chants funfebres
de I’automne. Pourtant la tristesse
d^automne lians mon coeur m’oblige
i ecouter le refrain hantant, ot ,bien-
tOt les fleurs dans mon coeur dor-
nient, attendant les giboulees de
mars.
Mais la tristesse d’octobre et les
soupirs de novembre ne font pas de
peine dans mon ame; mais plutot une
meditation aux choses passSes, et un
d6sir de savoir les choses de I’avenir.
—Reece Thomas
OPEN FORUM
OPEN POEUM
GRADES AND COTTON
College registrars, students, and
faculty members sometimes have
difficulty interpreting the grades
used in various institutions. If
you have not attempted to decip
her a transcript you have missed a
good opportunity to evaluate grades
properly. Cotton has been graded
since time immemorial. Why not
use a time honored system, changed
to meet modern conditions?
Cotton is a spcteies of Gossypium.
It has a fibre distinguished from all
others by its peculiar twist. The
Greeks and the Egyptians knew it
2500 years ago. Columbus found it
in the Western hemisphere. It was
planted at Jamestown in 1607. Eli
Whitney’s gin put new spirit into
its production.
Like cotton grades those in
courses indicat&s the fibrei of the
work. Cotton^ buyers know just
what they are getting when the
grade is mentioned. Why not try
the system below with the grade
at the top representing the best or
A, or something, and the one at
the bottom meaning passf Heref is
the up-to-date cotton grading sys
tem:
Middling-fair
Strict-good-middling
Good-middling
Strict-middling
Middling
Strict-low-middling
liOw-middling
Strict-good-ordinary
Ju.st think how easy it would be
to figure out a B plus!
I am delighted that my editorial
on the movies should have provoked
enthusiastic disagre>ement in last
week’s Open Forum. I am afraid,
however, that either I did not make
myself clear, or that “Open Forum”
completely misunderstood my point.
In the first place, I am not asking
for a “censored view of the lives of
the great.” I’m condemning the Hol
lywood censorship of everything not
relevant to Nelson’s love affair. I
think the emphasis in “That Ham
ilton Woman” was misplaced. We
were given a one-sided picture, de
signed to appeal to the box oflEice.
In my opinion, it would take great
powers of imagination to “sense the
magnificence of Lord Nelson and
Lady Hamilton” from the movie.
Their magnificence, for “Open For
um,” seems to consist of their de
fiance of convention. (“Open For
um would agree with Miss Crawley
in ‘ ‘ Vanity Fair ” when she says:
“That was the most beautiful part
of dear Lord Nelson’s character —
He went to the dance for a wom
an.”) If Nelson was magnificent, it
was in spite of, not because of his
affair with Lady Hamilton — al
though some people might argue that
his love simrred him on to win great
battles. But I doubt seriously wheth
er Lady Hamilton had much effect on
his naval successes.
I am still not convinced that the
‘ Nelsons, the Byrons, the Hearsts,
who have had ‘unspeakable’ affairs,”
are above condemnation. Please
note that I am not condemning what
Nelson did for England; I am not
condemning the poetry of Shelley or
Byron; (let’s not drag Hearst into
this.) What I am condemning is the
Hollywood interpretation of a so-
called “great love,” which dwarfs
all other aspects of the hero’s life.
If college fulfills its purpose in
teaching us “to appreciate the best
that has been said and thought in
the world,” then it seems to me that
we should be even more deeply of
fended by the warped presentation 4
of the lives of the “great” foisted
on a gullible public. It’s high time
for us to begin to “judge intelli
gently.” Frankly, I’m not very
much worried about the effect of
“That Hamilton Woman” on the
morals of “Open Forum.” That
isn t the main issue. All I’m asking
is tHat we be given an accurate por
trayal of the character as a w^ole,
not merely the ‘ ‘ purple passages. ”
“Citizen Kane” is a good example
of what I mean.
It would be stupid to censor Ea-
belais or Cervantes, but can you im
agine what Hollywood would do to
their works? It all conies back to
this: I consider “That Hamilton
Woman” neither a work, of art, nor
is it a synoptic view. So what merit
has it, other than a questionable
entertainment value ? Censorship
isn’t the answer to the problem!
If there are any further comments
or objections, let’s have them. Argu
ment in the spice of life.
Salem spirit. At least we owe prospective
spectators the pleasure of watching a good
game between friendly rivals.
Teams cannot function successfully with
out having l^ad practice as te^ms. Hockey
practice is still held from 4:00 to 6:00. You’ll
be expected to come.
A Letter To The Editor
WHERE ARE THE
CLASS TEAMS?
Prom the recent hockey practice attend
ance, it’s obvious that Salem considers that the
hockey season has come and gone. Have you
forgotten the excitement of class games? For
most of us the fun is only beginning. Now
is the time for all of us who sit longingly on
the sidelines to put to practice the theories
we’ve been cherishing. Now is the ’time to
show the rest of the world what we mean by
Lilli®. Red fllan
Once upon a time (over a century ago) there lived in
Salem an exceptionally industrious Moravian Brother who wore
red clothes from head to toe. He worked with the other un
married men digging out the cellar for their new home. One
night after the Vespers service was over he! suggested that they
go back and finish the collar before bedtime. The others agreed
that it was a good idea. They would dig a while and then run
out from underneath as masses of earth! fell to the floor. Only
one time the “Little Red Man” did not run fast enough and
was buried beneath the fallen dirt. His spirit stayed with the
brothers and still lives in the deep arched cellar of the Brothers’
House across the square — watching over S'alem to see that all
goes well.
I
Dear Editor,
According^ to last week’s Salemite, “one of
the purposes of Who’s Who in American Col-
leges and Universities is to serve as a standard
for students comparable to Phi Beta Kappa
and the Rhodes Scholarship Award.” While
that may be its “purpose,” according to this
writer’s opinion, it falls far short of that “pur
pose and any other implication is a gross mis
representation of fact.
My reasons follow:
iirst; if “Wlio’s Who” is comparable to
Phi Beta Kappa and a Rhodes Scholarship,
eligibility for one should symbolize eligibility
for the other — it doesn’t. Just try to obtain
admission to the last two on the basis of quali
fying for the first. Phi Beta Kappa sets specific
standards of scholarship and, unlike “Who’s
Who,” manages to maintain them in spite of
diverse grading systems. Those standards are
specified, not generalized. You either meet
them or you don’t.
Second; imagine being offered your name
in Who s A\ho” instead of a Rhodes Scholar
ship. If they are comparable, one should be
readily exchangable for the other. Do you know
what a Rhodes Scholarship implies? Among
other things, it implies at least a year of study
at Oxford with all expenses paid. You gain it
not by being an all around good student *and
personality, but by being outstanding among
the outstanding. The foremost students and
athletes of the country take examinations of a
very comprehensive character in order to de
termine the most superior of the group. The
standards are very, very high, and “Who’s
Who” simply isn’t in the same class.
Third; is nine a magical number? In my
experience, which I admit is limited, nine are
always chosen from each institution. In the
light of the absence of specific standards, what
rules out the tenth? Is it not possible that
there are not always nine really eligible? Or,
if nnie are always chosen, is it not possible
that the standards necessarily vary consider
ably? I know of one case where the head
of the student body chose the nine for his in
stitution.
All this is neither to discredit “Who’s
Who” nor the candidates who have just been
chosen. I am, sure they are more than worthy
of this distinction. The very method of their
choice at Salem is proof of that. But to say
that “Who’s Who” is comparable to Phi Beta
Kappa or a Rhodes Scholarship is certainly de
batable. I wish to raise the question, and to
cast a decided vote in the negative.
Sincerely,
An Interested Reader.
ARE YOU A RECLUSE?
As everyone knows, mealtime is the one
chance we have during the day to forget a
forthcoming test, or any other unpleasantry —
one time that all of us can talk about cheerful
things. It is the responsibility of everyone at
each table to see that an interesting conversa-
is carried on. Nobody but recluses and hermits
care to eat in silence and supposedly there are
none of these at Salem. Although it is said
to be the hostess’ place to guid,e the table talk,
she cannot do this very well unless she has
the co-operation of everyone else. Of course
this doesn’t mean that you must give a play by
play description of the last date you had
with Johnny to keep things going, but everyone
of us has enough soeiableness to contribute
her two cents worth; so give forth everybody.