Page Two.
THE SALEMITE
Friday, March 6, 1942.
Published Weekly By
The Student Body of
Salem College
Member
Southern Inter-Collegiate
Press Association
SUBSCRIPTION PEICE - $2. A YEAK - 10c A COPY
Member
F^ssocided GDlIe6iate Press
Distributor of
GDlle6iae Di6est
RKPRCSKNTCD FOK NATIONAL ADVERTISING eY
National Advertising Service, Inc.
College Publishers Representative
420 Madison Ave. N«;w York. N. Y.
CHICAGO • Boston • Los anoelcs • san Francisco
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor-In-Chief Carrie Donnell
Associate Editor Barbara Whittier
TO WHOM IT
MAY CONCERN
EDITORIAL STAFF
'Ne’vjs 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. Clidewell, Elizabeth
lohnston, Barbara Lasley, Margaret Moran, Marie Van Hoy,
Helen Fokaury, Margaret Leinbach, Mary Lou Moore, Betty
Vanderbilt, Marv Worth Walker, Elizabeth Weldon, Mary
Louise Rhodes, 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
earet Ray, Dorothy Stadler, Elizabeth Griffin, Betsy Spach,
Kathryn Traynham, Reece Thomas, Marion Goldberg, Mary
Best, Katherine Manning.
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.
Not so many years ago the smokers at
Salem got their first smoke-house. It wasn’t
a very attractive place and the hours for smok
ing Avere very limited. Since that time many
changes have been made and the smoking
regulations have been relaxed until now they
are practically nonexistent. Now we can play
bridge in the smoke-house; two years ago that
was a criminal offense. Now we can take our
dates in for a smoke. We couldn’t do that two
years ago either. We like the new regula
tions. AVe like to be able to smoke when we
want to without waiting for those certain
hours which somebody had arbitrarily desig
nated as the hours when we could smoke. We
like the new smoking room. For most of us it
is easiei- to get to and it is l)igger. There is
more room for fun, but it isn’t comfortable. It
is probably the most uncomfortable place in
Salem College. It is badly arranged and the
chairs and benches are just one degree better
than sitting on the floor. It is absolutely im-
])ossible to sit on one of the hard things for
more than ten minutes at a time, and that is
most inconvenient when you are in the middle
of an interesting conversation. ]5ut the worst
things al)OUt the game room is the air we have
to breathe. Yes, I know it would not be
stnoky if we wei'en’t down there smoking, but
still, something has to be done about the smoke,
hi the winter when the windows are opened
lliere is sucli a draft that everybody almost
freezes to death, and in the fall and spring
when there is little wind the smoke won’t go
out the windows anyway. We need a ven
tilating system and we need it badly.
Now that spring is almost here, we up-
))perclassmen are wishing that we had the old
smoke-house back again. My favorite mem-
oi'ies include the joy of smoking the first cig
arette of the day while everything outdoors
was still fresh and dewy and the mist was still
rising from the May Day Dell; and the nights
when every])ody sat outside in the moonlight
just before bedtime and sang old songs while
we smoked the last cigarette. It was fun. Out
thei’a we didn’t need a ventilating system. We
know that it will l)e next to impossible to get
anything done to our favorite hangout before
the end of this school year. We know that
there will have to be discussion and more dis
cussion before a ventilator can be bought and
installed, before comfortable chairs and maybe
even a second hand sofa or two can be dragged
The question of the week is, “what would you like to
have on the Civic Music Series next year?” The girls who
were questioned were allowed five choices to be listed in the
order of preference. These choices were selected from different
types of programs: soprano, contralto, tenor, violin, string
quartet, baritone, piano, cello, vocal ensemble, orchestra, ballet,
and joint programs. Also, each girl could name any particular
artist that she wished to have next year.
Out of the total number of selections, the most popular
form of programs, proved to be a tie between the piano and
orchestra. Soprano was the second choice; and tenor violin,
and ballet tied for third choice. Next, in the order of total
preferences were baritone, vocal ensemble, string quartet, and
joint i)rograms. No person included the cello in any of the
five preferences.
In listing the programs according to individual prefer
ences, and not according to the total, soprano, piano, and ballet
tied for the greatest number of first choices. The orchestra
was the most popular second and third selection, while the
soprano was the leading fourth preference. Tenor and baritone
tied for fifth place.
In naming particular artists that they would like to hear,
the girls named such individuals as Richard Crooks, Gladys
Swarthout, Helen Jepson, Lawrence Tibbett, Ruth Draper, and
Cornelia Otis Skinner. Also suggested were the Russian Bal
let and the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
ARE WE
COLLEGE STUDENTS?
Most of us have been spending a great deal of the time
lately working on term papers. Not only are the rate cards
being', used, but the walls in the stacks as well.
We are students in college, but with the handwriting on
the wall appearing with illustrations, in such a place, I rather
think that high school pupils wuld be more appropriate. Have
you been in the stacks lately? Have you been sitting at the
tables ?
I’m quite sure that note-taking for term papers could not
possibly cause us to become so absent-minded as to begin taking
notes on the walls. White walls won’t stay spotless, and the
walls can’t be repainted after each term-paper writing —
need I say more?
—C. D.
STEE GEE ELECTION
Thursday was election day for
Stee Gee president. If Keece had
not annouueed in chapel that we
were to be sure and vote, probably
not more than a half a dozen stu
dents would have cast a. ballot.
There were none of the old heated
arguments and campaigns ... no
one seemed to care. Have you real
ized the utter lack of enthusiasm
and interest in the coming elections
is a rather passive way of strang
ling ourselves? We are not inter
ested enough to vote; yet we will
be interested enough to complain
when we see our leaders vainly
floundering for someone or some
thing to follow. In the past we
have elected girls for their com-
l>leto conformity to set ideas and
patterns — now that they are com
ing uj) as campus leaders they find
themselves lost without a guiding
hand to steady them. The girls we
elected as Freshman and Sophomore
stuilent government representatives
—■ the girls we elected to head our
classes — the girls we elected to
the “Y.” cabinet are the only girls
that have had the training to be
leaders. It is not they who should
shoulder the blame of inadequate
government, but we because we
have voted without thought and
foresight. Our ideas of what con
stitutes a good leader have boiled
down to one, now rather warped, as
pect of the good leader — harmless
goodness. Goodness, genuine good
ness, is a virtue that we like for our
leaders to have — but is goodness
the only reiuisite that we are to
have for our campus officers? Such
superficial selection of officers goes
.back, not to high school, but to
primary and grammar grades. Then
we elected the little boy who had
never been scolded by teacher —re
gardless of the fact that he hadn’t
the physical strength to life a gavel.
As college students, we should be
just a bit boyond that level — We
should require that our leaders have
intelligence, understanding, person
ality, and the fearless force to lead
us toward what they think is right.
Our leaders should be the girls in
whom we have confidence, not the
girls at whom we scoff. Our lead
ers should have somewhere to lead
us — some goal at which we would
all be proud to aim and to work
(•ooi^erati\'(ely and whole-heartedly
for. They should make us make new
horizons for the rising steudents —
our aims should unfold new and
higher aims. There is ability in the
rising senior class that we have
failed to recognize — there is abil
ity that we are overlooking in our
frantic search for inane goodness.
Before we vote again lot’s honestly
seek out our true leaders and vote
for them — Lot’s for once put aside
our petty grudges and have a gen
uinely worthwhile election.
BUY
DEFENSE
STAMPS
BONDS
KEEP ‘EM FLYING
This is a letter, a letter to anyone who
may happen upon it or to anyone who may
be interested in reading it; it is my letter to
you, whoever you are, wherever you may be.
There are many things I must say, and each of
the things I shall say may amuse you — all of
to talk about you — and about me. Some of
the things I shall say may amuse yu — all of
them perhaps, and if you are amused, I shall
be glad to have entertained you, but I shall
know that you have not heard Avhat I have
been saying.
We have work to do — you and I, and
the time is shorti in which we must do it. We
cannot undo our past actions, but we can avoid
repeating them in the future. You will laugh
when, I tell yoit that you and I are responsible
for the disorder around us, but we really are,
you know. The very fact that we deny our
responsibility proves to me that at some time
we must have recognized and evaded it. We
have waited for someone else to do for us that
which we alone can do; now we see the result
ing choas. To state the fact bluntly, we have
been selfish, you and I; we have believed that
we could care for ourselves alone and have
expected the rest of the world to care for us
too. We have forgotten that there are things
greater than we. But we are remembering
now.
And we are remembering the hard way. We
are closing our eyes to people and to situations
and are promising ourselves to awake when
the emergency is upon us. If the world is to
fall, we’d rather enjoy ourselves until the
last moment before the crash rather than roll
up our sleeves and do something to avoid the
disaster. We like our fun — you and I, but
then, we are descended from a long line of
fun-lovers. Our parents were making merry
at Versailles, and our older brothers were
laughing too loudly to hear the voices at
]\Iunieh. You and I have witnessed the fall
of Prance, we have heard the bombs at Pearl
Harbor and the ginifire at Singapore, and yet
we dare to say that we can wait, that we can
let someone else defend our interests while we
dance. If we do not accept our responsibility,
who will?
We are indolent, you and I. We place
our interests in the hands of others because
we will not take the trouble to attend to them
ourselves. We watch the structure we call
society fall about our heads, because we cannot
exei't ourselves to support it and keep it in
order. But we are learning the hard way;
we are learning that what affects society
sooner or later affects us. We cannot ignore
the group forever; sooner or later it shall en
gulf us in the chaos we have failed to control.
We call ourselves happy, but we really
aren’t, you know. We’re contented — like
cows chewing grass in a meadow. We are sat
isfied to let others order our society for us;
we utter a few protests perhaps, but we rarely
do anything actively constructive; we are too
busy maintaining our state of bljssful ignor
ance and content. Hut someday we shall
awake — you and I, we shall awake to find our
house in ruins, then we shall behold standing
at the ' threshold the responsibility we have
long neglected.
And this is my letter to you, telling you
of the work we have to do and the responsi-
])ility we have to face. If you must continue
to sleei) —■ then, pleasant dreams and may the
angels guard you when you awake.
—R. T.
out and moved to the game room. But it would
take but little effort to give us permission to
use the old back porch once more. We could
go down there between classes with no fear of
being late. We could sit in the fresh air and
bull, and smoke in a healthy atmosphere. May
be we could even regain some of that old spirit
which used to originate in the smoke house and
which seems to have been lost somewhere in
the past two years. How about it?
—P. Y.