Page Two.
THE SALEMITE
Friday, March 27, 1942.
? Y. W. 0. A. ?
Published Weekly By
The Student Body of
Salem College
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor-In-Chirf Carrie Donnell
dissociate Editor Barbara Whittier
EDITORIAL STAFF
News 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, EH/abeth
Johnston, Barbara Lasley, Margaret Moran, Marie Van t4oy,
Helen Fokaury, Margaret Leinbach, Mary Lou Moore, Betty
Vanderbilt, Mtery 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
t;aret 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 Struvcn
Exchange and Circulation Manager Dot McLean
ADVERTISING STAFF
Flora Avera, Becky Candler, Doris Nebel. Betty Moore,
Adeie Chase, Mary E. Bray, Nancy McQung, Sarah Lindley,
Allene Seville, Elizabeth Griffin, Margaret Kempton, Sara
Barnum, Jennie Dye Bunch, Lib Read, Harriet Sutton, Ruth
O’Neal, Yvonne Phelps, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Edith Shapiro.
WHAT ABOUT IT?
“It’s so messj" looking that I just hate to
go down there!” And no wonder A poor be-
seiged term-paper writer decides to drop her
work for ten minutes to spend a short rest pe
riod in the game room and to dring a coke or
smoke a cigarette, and she has to wade through
a mass of cigarette stubs and coke bottles to
get into the room. As she starts to sit down
on the table, bang! crash! and another coke
bottle casualty is added to the list of “Y”
losses for the year. When she finally gets her
cigarette lighted and relaxes for a comfortable
smoke she is suddenly startled out of her
reverie by a !ig stub flying past a stray lock
of hair.
She begins to complain about the frightful
a])pearanee of the room and wishes that she
could smoke in her own, i-oom as all other col
lege girls do now but the ones at Salem or that
someone would clean up the room to make it
presentable.
“Why I’m ashamed to bring anybody
down here to show them the game room!” she
exclaims. Then she looks at her watch, jumps
up, I'ushes toward the door and at the same
time pitched her cigarette butt against the
wall, adding another one to the pile and at the
same time mumbling about the “messy place.”
And nobody seems to realize why ash trays
were invented or why several of them are pro
vided in the Game Room, nobody seems to no
tice the trash cans for paper cups and candy
wrappers; and nobody seems to care about sav-
ing the coke bottles. It’s true perhaps that
these Salemites probably wouldn’t be careless
if allowed to smoke in their rooms, but how
can one be sure when one sees the recklessness
that goes on in the Game Eoom. And if noth
ing better than the Game Room is available
now why should we object seriously to putting
stubs in trays instead of on the floor and trash
in cans?
Think about it Salemites. You realize that
as long as there is no other solution to a prob
lem it is best to do as well as possible with
what you do have. How can anyone trust you
with something better if you can’t handle ca
pably what you already have?
Dear S'tudeiits of Salem College,
Several weeks ago an editorial appeared
in the Salemite asking the reason for the I.
R. S, This letter asks the same thing about
the Y. W. C. A. I have been raeaning to write
to you for several weeks, but feel especially
moved to do so tonight.
I think the Y. W. C. A. at Salem College is
a farce, an antiquated hangover from the days
when such an organization meant something.
x\nd if it is to continue on the same path it has
travelled for the past few years, I favor its
total abolishment.
College young people are interested in re
ligious and philosophical questions. In spite of
anything! you may say, 1 know that each of us
at Salem is interested in a vital life-involving
religion. Our bull sessions give ample evidence
that each, ofl us feels a yearning for something
larger than ourselves. Since our concepts
about religion are changing during college,
anything which can give us new ideas is wel
comed. And that is why a religious organiza
tion theoretically has a place on the campus.
But in spite of the universal nebulous interest
in religion, the Y. W. C. A. doesn’t contribute
a thing to anyone’s ideas. Theoretically and
ideally, the “Y” could mean a lot. I had
imagined the Y. W. C. A. being this year a
common meeting ground of ideas and provid
ing material for a synthesis of all our studies
— psychology, history, art, literature, science
—into a meaningful whole. I had hoped that
some of the more advanced thinkers among the
students would contribute a lot to our religious
ideas. Instead, the “Y” has been a miserable
failure.
Ii think that the main reason for this fail
ure has been indifference and intolerance
among the students. Too many of you have a
false, narow concept of what the “Y” can
mean and strives to mean, and you think that
the “Y” is nothing but an antiquated Sunday-
School set-up. And you are either too lazy
or too indifferent to try to find out what the
“Y” hopes to do.
I don’t feel that the cabinet is at fault. I
believe that the cabinet is the most representa
tive group of girls on the campus, and many
viewpoints on religion and other ideas can be
found among these girls. Get out your hand
book and see who’s on the cabinet and you’ll
see what I mean.
The Vespers programs haven’t been at
fault, either. They have been excellent this
year, and I can think of but one or two that
didn’t really mean something to me — and I’m
hard to please! And yet, hardly anyone comes
to Vespers, except a few cabinet mambers and
their obliging roommates, and many of those
come from ti( sense of duty. We had Dr. Var-
dell to give a usical program; thirty people
were there. Mr. Kenyon showed examples of
religious art; thirty people were there. We
had readings from a book that would make a
I'’undamentalist’s hair stand on end; twenty
))eople were there. We’ve had student pro
grams, and we’ve had outside speakers; re
gardless of what or who, the same dreary duti
ful few have appeared, with never a single dif
ferent face. We can’t have any more outside
‘fpeakers, because it’s too embarrassing for them
to give a well-planned discussion to the faith
ful fifteen. Frankly, I’m discouraged. I be
lieve that even if we had Sally Rand and Clark
Gable to give a program at Vespers, nobody
would come!
And when Dr. Redhead was here, over
half the student body didn’t come to even one
of the informal discussions. Over half of you
didn’t even take the trouble to find out what
he was like before you criticized. And if you
don’t think that’s discouraging, you just hav
en’t any imagination.
We have tried to stimulate the social life
at Salem. We had hoped the “Y” Teas would
be chatty, informal get-togethers. Instead of
taking advantage of this opportunity to see
your friends and acquaintances, you inquired
in advance what the bill of fare was. If it
wasn’t caviar you didn’t come. Or you came,
wolfed the food, and walked out, bearing hand
fuls of cookies to your “sick roommate.”
We tried a “Y” Music Hour on Sunday
afternoons, to promote get-togethers. The re
sults were depressing: I believe ten came once.
And there have been other well-planned
things that have flopped miserably, because of
lack of student support.
The Y. W. C. A. is your organization, and
if'vou don’t want it, for goodness’ sake, wake
OPEN FORUM
Dear Salemites,
You can’C have missed these HUGE defense posters plas
tered all over the campus! Aren’t they wonderful? At the
same time they make me feel guilty. I haven’t done too much
about this defense business myself. My empty toothpaste
tube is still on the shelf in my room — I’ve been intending to
take it over and drop it in the container at Gooch’s but just
never have got around to doing it — and my poor little defense
stamp book! It has eight stamps in it which I bought in the
heat of my first enthusiasm. I thought I’d learn to drink my
coffee without sugar, too — after all the British or somebody
claim that the taste is ruined by the addition of sugar and
cream and I should like to be able to make away with after-
dinner coffee — straight! But again I haven’t done too well.
Yes, I’m taking a first aid course, but so far I haven’t read a
single lesson assigned or practiced any of the things we’ve done
in class. You can see I’m rather disgusted with myself and
with good reason, too.
When Reece and Sara came back from the Southern In
tercollegiate Association of Student Governments conference
which they attended in Lynchburg last week-end they were
hanging their heads in shame. It seems every other college
represented there except Salem was doing something for defense
even if it was only boosting the sale of defense stamps. WCUNC
is saving about 90 loaves of bread a week by merely taking
what they are going to eat and leaving no left-overs. They
found that if they made it a rule to eat every bit of bread
they took they wouldn’t be so complacent about the number of
slices they’d put on their butter plates at one time. At Duke
on certain nights a boy must present a defense stamp to the
Defense Council before the girl whom he is dating can come
down to see him. At other colleges admission to script dances
is by defense stamps. Some senior classes are presenting their
colleges with defense bonds for their class gift. At still other
schools tinfoil and toothpaste tube drives are being conducted.
Don’t you think it would be a good idea if we started
something in earnest here? When we go through the cafeteria
line in the morning we could help the school cut down on food
bills by taking only one biscuit or one piece of toast. We could
really save a lot of tinfoil if we put all the tinfoil from our
cigarettes in a box downstairs. And then there’s that con
tainer for toothpaste tubes over in Gooch’s which wouldn’t
take long to fill up if everyone at Salem did her share. Why
couldn’t we suggest that our dates send us defense stamp cor
sages for the last two dancest of the year instead of spending a
lot of money for something that won’t last? You saw pic
tures of them in ‘ ‘ Life ’ ’ didn’t you ? And they were still very at
tractive. We might even buy a few stamps on our own. And
then there’s no harm in doing a little' first aid before the exam.
We all know what little good a course does us in which we cram
just enough the night before the, test in order to pass. I hear
Miss Averill has persuaded Mrs. Shelbourne Johnson, a de
fense worker, to speak tonight in the Old Chapel at 6:45. Won’t
you go over with me and hear what she has to say? I’m re
solving to mend my slipshod ways right now and I think she
might' have some light to throw on the subject that would help
me. Maybe you’re doing all you can for defense. But the rest
of us can go! Sincerely,
Pate Riotic.
up and toss the relic out the window. This
lidvewarm attitude is positively nauseating.
It seems that the only good the “Y” has
done this year has been ofE the campus. Maybe
the sixty dollars spent for the support of an
Alaskan Orphan, and the thirty dollars used
to buy milk for a needy family did some good.
And the money given for foreign students was
a generous gesture on your part, and will mean
a lot. But the rest of the activities of the
“Y” have been meaningless.
If only some of you intelligent, thinking
persons had helped a little with ideas and
criticism and interest, maybe the “Y” M^ould
have been worthwhile this year and would not
be in its present moribund state. An organiza
tion like this cannot function in a social
vacuum.
Perhaps the hamburger I ate several hours
ago has upset my digestion so that this letter
appears unusually bitter. But indigestion or
not, my ideas are still the same. Mayb6 now
you see why I favor the dissolution of the
Y. W. C. A. at Salem, unless something is done
to save it in a hurry.
Your discouraged friend,
—Lelia Johnston.