North Carolina Newspapers

    Page Two.
THE SALEMITE
Friday, December 12, 1941.
Cl)c ^alemite
Published Weekly Member
The Stxtoent Body of l^^YaSouthern Inter-Collegiate
Salem College J»r«j Association
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CHICAGO • BOSTOH • LOS ANGELES * SAN FRAVCISOO
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor-In-Chief Carrie Donnell
Associate Editor Barbara Whittier
EDITORIAL STAFF
Nenvs Editor Doris Shore
Sports Editor Louise Bralower
Music Editor Alice Purcell
Faculty Adviser Miss Jess Byrd
Sara Henry, L«ila Johnston, Julia Smith, Frances Neal,
Daphne Reich, Katie Wolff, Mary L. Glidewell, Elizabeth
Johnston, Barbara Lasley, Margaret Moran, Marie Van Hoy,
Helen Fokaury, Margaret Leinbach, Mary Lou Moore, Betty
Vanderbilt, Marv Worth Walker, Elizabeth Weldon, Mary
Louise Rhoxdes, Lucie Hodges, Frances Yelverton.
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 Spach,
Kathryn Traynham, Reece Thomas, Marion 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, Nancy McClung, Sarah Llndley,
Allene Seville, Elizabeth Griffin, Margaret _ Kempton, Sara
Barnum, Jennie Dye Bunch, Lib Read, Harriet Sutton, Ruth
O'Neal, Yvonne Phelps, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Edith Shapiro.
THIS IS OUR
SACRED DUTY
We are at War with Japan! How many
times we have heard this since Sunday! What
has it done to us? How will it change our
lives? How will it affect our American plan
of living?
So far most of us here at Salem have taken
the news in one of two ways. We have taken
the extremes and have forgotten about the sane
middle course. Some of us have said, “Oh
dear, I’m so worried. Jim won’t get home to
take me to the holiday dances. It does look
like the Japs could have waited until after
Christmas. Well, I suppose there’s no point
in thinking about it. Let’s play a little bridge,”
Others have sat rather hysterically by the
radio listening to every news report and be
lieving all of them. They have not taken time
to weigh the news or wait for it to be confirm
ed by real authorities. Their world has fallen
down around their ears. They can see no fu
ture ahead. They can see no light. They can
not see that some good comes out of every
evil.
This isi no way for thinking people to act.
We are the people who must do something
about this situation. Not the present, per
haps, hut tlie future depends on this college
generation. Upon us will fall the responsibility
of building the world of tomorrow. It has to
be this way. We must face it. We cannot turn
our backs on the world and depend on our fa
thers to do our thinking for us. We cannot
be pessimists and see only darkness and death
ahead. We have to hold our heads up. We
must look into the future and see victory. We
are the people who are being trained to think
and we are the people who have the time to
think. We have an idea, vague perhaps, but
nevertheless an idea of what is wrong with the
world. We cannot go out and actually fight
for what we believe, but we can recognize
propaganda for what it is. We can live our
lives as normally as we have been doing. We
cannot and must not expect to remain aloof
and unaware of what is going on in a mad
world. We must think sanely and live sanely.
This will be our victory. This is our sacred
duty.
—F. Y.
CaUt
Chores etudiantes,
Pout-etre que la saison' de Noel est celle que nous aimons plus que
toutea le.s autres. Mais cette annge le Noel ne va pas etre le meme que
celui que nous avons connu jusqu’i mainteuant. Notre pays se bat,
I’Europo est presqu’entierement subjuguee, et I’esprit de Noel ne demeure
pas sur la terre.
II est a nous, alors, d’essayer de faire revivre cet esprit qui meure,
de nous rappelcr que si nous oublions cet esprit il n’y aura personne qui
puisse 8 ’en souvenir. Alors, essayons de disseminer dela joief partout. Mais
nous ne pouvons pas donner de la joie aux autres sij nous ne sommes pas
joyeuses nous-mfimes. Eh bien, en nous souvenant de la guerre, il ne
faut pas y i>enser trop, II faut agir comme avant, en tant que ?a soit
possible, et il faut croire que notre pays va gagner cette guerre, et en
etre confidentes.
Maintenent, c’est le Noel eft nous devjions Str© heureusea. Soyona-
le! Allons chez nous revoir nos amis et nos parents, et oublions la guerre
pendant nos vaeauces. Joyeux Noel, mes ainies!'
Dear Editor:
Last week the SALEMITE ran a noteworthy editorial on
the advantages' of a small college. The advantages are very
real and worthwhile, as we all acknowledge by our attendance
here; but I, like Mr. Poe, think that perhaps the virtues shine
out for themselves, and that it is the fault which must ex
pose . . , and correct.
We| might ask, “Is Salem ingrown? Haven I we so lived
in our little world of tradition that we have failed to honor this
rich tradition by making it a growing thing?” . . . and answer,
“Emphatically, YES!” We might ask further, “Have we let
our minds become static — have we let ourselves become con
tent to memorize and never question; to copy class notes with
out a thought, a question, a doubt?”, and answer again, “Em
phatically, Yes!”
The real answer to these questions, which is a solution
of the problem, is that we all — teachers and students alike —
have lost sight of our goal. We have forgotten what education
is, and are blindly and lazily turning to Medieval scholasticism
in a day when education is, perhaps, more vitally important
than ever before. Before we can assume the responsibility of
being tomorrow’s leaders, we must settle this problem of getting
the rudiments of education . . and to settle requires co-opera
tion.
“Students learn what they want to learn” , . . if we ever
want to live normal, healthy lives away from the drone of planes
and the constant worry of war, we must want to learn.
Questions answered by a cross-section of students dis
closed that the courses in which the students want to learn are
the hard courses: they are the courses in which students and
teachers work with interest and fervor .... in whiih stu
dents delve in the library and find dusty facts, which become
*
live, meaningful questions in class. The courses which the stu
dents termed mediocre were those with interesting material,
tough assignments . . . but no real interest from the teacher
or the class. The “sleeping courses” were unanimously voted
down as dull and worthless . . . the teacher gives, the student
takes; there is no common ground, no desire to learn.
This problem of not wanting to learn is more prevalent
in the small college than in the universities, because we have
fewer scholars, real scholars, than do the universities. We
should, however, be vitally interested as college students, as
potential leaders in a drive for peace, in making all courses at
Salem “best” courses. We should be interested in getting edu
cated rather than “lam’d.” If we are interested, we should
demand — not more work from teachers — but more interest;
we should demand that the teacher review the lesson that she
hasn’t thought about since graduate school ... we should de
mand by sincere interest and hard work that we be treated as
normal, intelligent human beings and not like moronic ma
chines ... we should demand, and we should prove that we
are worthy of demanding.
WITH PERFECT
SINCERITY
NAMES IN
PUBLIC
It’s not that we don’t appreciate the significance of hand
writing on tlie wall, but when it is on Salem College’s walls,
we don’t feel that it is qiiite as valuable as it was in Nebuchan-
nezzar’s court, especially a name written many times over. It
may be true that it is a beautiful name, but I can’t see why it
pays to advertise within the walls of Salem College. If you
wotild go over to the Bowman Gray School of Medicine and
write your name and telephone number on the wall that would
be a different matter and we could understand that. But when
your name is v ■ ’r'Cii on Salem walls, just remember that this
motto holds trui ; “ ‘ ols names and fools faces are often seen
in public places.
—M. L, G.
December 18th — a date marked on every
student calendar. Even faculty calendars
might reveal a row of little X’s, as the days fall
off one by one. Christmas in college means
the anticipation of dates, parties, dances, fam
ily reunibns, presents, -checking on train sched
ules, hilarious excitement. The last week seems
Unbearably tedious. Classes are disorganized.
If a faculty member gives a test on the last
day, his name, rightly or wrongly, is anathema.
That’s all part of the preliminaries. It’s
what the thought of Christmas conjures up in
our minds. In varying degrees, that’s what
Christmas brings to every college and univer
sity in the country. This year Christmas means
something different. Oh, we’ll probably go
through the same routine, which is always nov
el. We may be as gay and apparently enjoy
ourselves as much, but underneath is the shock
of reality, cold, hard reality.
College is a cloistered world. In a college
of this type, students are pretty well cushioned
against the facts of existence. It’s not our
fault, nor the fault of our parents. For it is
the nature of parents to protect their children
to the fullest possible extent. But we must
confess that we have led a comparatively easy
life. Since none of us remember the last war,
this is our first contact with an issue far larger
than ourselves and our own interests. We’ve
read, of course. Some of us could be very
bookish and recite statistics, causes, results,
etc., of the last war. None of us know what
war means.
Our first reaction is emotional; the shock,
the horror, we can’t believe it! College sud
denly seems unimportant. Digging in the li
brary is singularly unreal and profitless. It’s
easier to have a feverish good time than to
keep on with our ordinary tasks.
Well, it’s time we grew up and faced the
facts. If our education means anything to us,
now is the time to use it. College should have
aided us in formulating a way of life, a sense
of values. Now is the time to retain our men
tal balance, to maintain a clear perspective,
neither plunging into despair nor reckless
gaiety.
Every great civilization has made a lasting
contribution to world culture, in spite of the
disasters of war and pestilence. This is true
of.the Creeks in the fifth century, of the Roman
Empire, overrun by barbarians, some of whom
were the ancestors of the present barbaric Ger
mans. It is true of the Middle Ages, devastated
by pestilence. It is true of I*i'ance in spite of
Napoleon and the Revolution. It has been true
of this country, notwithstanding several wars,
and it will continue to be true after this war.
*
The significant factor in all this is that we
are the ones to support this tradition; to ensure
its continuance by steady attention to that
which will be real, lasting, permanent, when
Hitler is only a name in a history text. Re
membering our duties and privileges as “de
fenders of culture,” we can still say with per
fect sincerity, “Merry Christmas!”
—A. K.
WE MUST
KEEP CALM
No one who realizes the cause of war and
the results of war wants war. But if war
comes, and it has come, we should not get un
duly excited or become emotionally wrought
up. Letting our excitement get the upper hand
over our common sense will help- no one.. We
are all worried — even more so in view of
our “isolated” position — we feel like pack-
, \
ing up and taking off for home. (Fortunately
what we feel like doing and the actions we
really take do not conform). The best stand
that we can assume is a calm one — Beware
of going off on an emotional angent. Getting
unduly excited won’t help.
—Ll H.