Page Two
THE SALEMITE
ScUool MtUiant . . .
A battlp is ])eiiif? waged right in front of
our eyes. It is a friendly battle, for there is
no real enemy. This campaign is being car
ried on merely to win other people to our side
. . . peopl(‘ with means. We need these people
to su])port our cause. Our cause is Salem.
Since 1772 Salem has meant different things
to different people. To its founders it was
the realization of a dream; to faculty mem
bers it has meant academic freedom. To many
parents it has meant insuring for their daugh
ters the best that education has to offer. To
its .students it has been a shipyard, preparing
them for a life-long sail on this ocean of a
world . . . and very few ships have been sunk.
Whatever else its meaning has been, it has
been worthwhile. It is a meaning we want to
continue to exist . . . one we want to enlarge.
To do this Ave must progress. To progress we
need people on our side who are able to help
us in this advancement. Thus . . . the cam
paign, with Dr. Gramley as our general.
In every war there are those who take part
in the actual battle . . . there ar« those who
sit at home . . . then, there are those who
lend moral support. For instance, in the last
war there were the Ked Cross workers . . .
girls who of course could not enter into com
bat but wanted to do something to help us
win. Among many things, they issued coffee
and doughnuts to the soldiers on the front
lines. This showed the men we were backing
them up. It made the other side wonder if
the “Yanks” didn’t have something after all
. . . women who believed in them.
Most of us can’t take part in the actual
battle, for we don’t have the necessary am
munition. On the other hand, there are no
“sit-at-homes” at Salem. Somehow I feel that
all of us Salemites will want to play the part
of a Red Cross worker. A dollar here and a
dollar there won’t build a new dormitory or
add another distinguished name to our faculty
list, hut they will be doughnuts for our sold
iers on the front lines. And, most important
of all, such a contribution will make the other
side wonder.
Firm is thy faith, oh Salem,
Thy future service sure.
The beauty of thy heritage
Forever shall endure.
. . . and increase. With your help, Salem
ites, the school militant can become the school
triumphant.
/I Sad ^ale ...
Once upon a time there was a school.
At this school there was a girl known as
the May Day Chairman. All year long she
worked herself to death.
She wrote until her hands became paralized
and would, no longer function. She thought
of so many new ideas that soon there was nof*
a single creative Avrinkle left on her brain.
She ran to and from the May Dell and the
gym so many times that both of her legs gave
way and she had to be carried on a stretcher.
Finally, her voice, Aveakened from ghung
directions, dAvindled doAvn to a feeble croak.-
She Av'as easily mistaken for the “Wreck of
the Hesperus”.
But this girl was happy. She and her as
sistants had done all this so that the students
of the school could enjoy all the splendor of
a" beautiful May Day pageant and all the
glamour and excitement of a May Day Dance.
The sad thing about this story is that all
the Avork Avas in vain. Not a soirl shoAved up
at the pageant or the dance. They had all
gone to dances at other schools planned by
other chairmen.
The May Day Chairman could not stand up
under the strain; she noAv lies buried in this
school’s May Dell.
The happy thing about it is that it could
never happen at Salem. AVe respect the labors
of oiir May Day Chairman . . . Ave Avill go tc-
the pageant and the dance.
^alemite
Published every Friday ol the College year by the
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Associate Editor
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Assistant News Editor
Feature Editor Judy Graham
Assistant Feature Editor Martha Ann Kennedy
Emily McClure
..Mary Benton Royster
Bebe Boyd
Jo Smitherman
Ann Knight
..Sherry Rich
By Jo Smitherman
A Salem girl’s exposures to “the
universal language”: Earl Bostic at
Carolina, Ray Anthony at David
son, seniors and sophomores in
Memorial Hall, Civic Music person
alities at Reynolds Auditorium,
dormitory record collections, Doro
thy Collins on the “Hit Parade,”
“rhythm with a touch of the blues”
on “Boo’s Record Corner.”
Occasionally the degree of ex
posure excites .in the non-music-
major a curiosity—resulting in an
hour of isolation in the listening
room or a glance through the read
ing room copy of “Musical Amer
ica”.
The literary-minded Salemite,
after searching out the Nutcracker
Suite and anything by Gershwin or
Romberg, happens upon “Robert
Frost Reading His Own PoetrF’
and “Leaves of Grass”. Here she
spends her hour.
The same girl — peering into
“Musical America”—discovers that
all the contemporary controversy
is not confined to her history class
and bridge table. Musicians are
currently aghast at a book pub
lished last month. (Simon and
Schuster; $3.00; 180 pp.)
Henry Pleasants has lost his
prestige in the music world. His
masterpiece of radical opinions
about modern music is called, in
the Saturday Review of Literature,
a haphazard collection of “contra
dictions, half-truths, and distor
tions.” His book is “unauthenti
cated, general, and sprawling,”
among other things.
The growing mind thrives on con
troversy. So, to the unbiased New
York Times.
Here Mr. Pleasants is valiantly
defending himself. And his con
clusion in the controversial The
Agony of Modern Music: “Jazz is
modern music — and nothing else
is!”
“Contemporary serious music is
unimportant because it has lost
contact with the public—^jazz has a
public ...” Mr. Pleasants brands
the contemporary composer “a
pathetic figure seeking to-shape the
music of his generation while all
around him the music of his gener
ation is spontaneously and irrest-
ibly taking place.”
One of these “pathetic figures,”
Aaron Copland, jumps into Mr.
Pleasants from the opposite page
of the Times article. Indignantly
he screams, “Is so-called classical
music bankrupt in our age?”
And with a vague logic argues
that classical music is not com
posed to appeal to the masses. “No
publisher of an author-philosopher
like Whitehead would expect him
to reach the enormous public ,..of a
novelist like Hemingway!” he ana
logizes.
Such a division of the music
public was meat for vicious Pleas
ants. “The habit of criticizing
audiences instead of music has
made the contemporary composer
what he is today—a pathetic figure-
>}
It is the will of society, says
Pleasants, that the abrupt shift in
music be from serious to popular,
from theme and harmony to melody
and rhythm.
He defines jazz on the grounds
that it has taken music away from
the composers and given it back to
musicians and their public. The
20th-century god of creative genius,
spontaneity, and technical freedom
—reigning over contemporary art
and literature — has usurped the
modern audience-kingdom.
Divide the audience, dares Pleas
ants, and in the minority will be
the fogies. The contemporary com
poser has committed the grievous
sin of ignoring himself and society
in order that he might adhere com
pletely to “a tradition esthetically
and technically exhausted.”
“Contemptuous of the music that
exhausted it,” Pleasants continues,
“the contemporary composer pro
duces a music of technical exco
gitation in which the listener finds
neither pleasure nor the reflection
of anything of the least concern
to him.”
Copland says, so what! “Keep
listening to it!” Difficult and ab
stract modern music has “power
and tension and expressiveness
typically 20th-century in quality.”
And on and on they go. The
musical world, too, is concerned
about the trend of culture—about
the tastes of modern society.
And Henry Pleasants—whether a
deliberate protagonist, a reliable
music critic, or a sincere observer
of society — has drawn a timely
question into the foreground.
Can composers of “serious” mo
dern music defend themselves ade
quately from a radical’s upsetting
accusations ? They are trying.
If we students prefer Satchmo’s
singing and Errol Garner’s impro
vising to “An American in Paris”
and “Rhapsody in Blue,” can we
begin to call ourselves music-
lovers ?
Pleasants says we may rightly do
that. Next month will we be “cul
tured” for jumping to “Flip, Flop,
and Fly” and “Dance with Me,
Henry” ?
Here iind There
By Emma McCotter
Austria: After ten long years and
nearly 400 negotiating sessions
where the Russians have taken
every action to block the Western
attempt to remove all occupation
troops from Austria, the Russian
government has finally agreed to
the idea of “free Austria.”
The big concession that Russia
has made is that all occupation
troops will be withdrawn immedia
tely after the state treaty is signed
and in any case not later than De
cember 31, 19SS.
In many ways, the most seri
ously affected country will be t^ie
United States. It wijl have to
abandon its big base at Salzburg
and withdraw its 15,000' troops.
However, for the first time since
Hitler marched in in 1938, Austria
is in sight of the time when there
will not be a foreign soldier on her
soil.
Asia: The Bandung Conference
nations, mostly newly formed sove
reign countries, have come together
with the loose binding of a few
things in common. There are dif
ferences in economics, resources,
enemies, and religion—to mention
only a few.
Even the conference’s five spon
sors were not agreed on what the
conference should try to achieve.
These five hosts have been trying
to decide on an agenda for many
rhonths. They have gathered, not
to confirm a common purpose, but
to find one.
The latest report is, however,
that Prime Minister Chou En-lai
of Red China has announced that
he and the country he represents
are ready to negotiate on the ques
tion of Formosa.
Great Britain: Queen Elizabeth
will dissolve the present Parliment
on May 6. But before this is done,
the Chancellor will present Brit
ain’s budget for 1955; and the
House of Commons will press
through the necessary legislation
to enable the government to carry
on until the new Parliament meets
on June 7'. '
France: Last month, shortly after
Britain announced that it would
build H-bombs, Premier Edgar
Faure announced almost casually
that France would do likewise.
However, after long . consideration,
the French cabinet has decided that
such a task would be too expensive.
France will continue to use
atomic power for peaceful pur
poses; and, as the Premier stated,
France expects to keep its place
as a great power.”
East Germany: The number of re
fugees who have flowed into the
West has grown quite large. This
seems to show unrest in that sec
tion of Germany. They tell stories
of a serious farm crisis in East
Germany.
Besides the farmers, there are
also young men and teachers com
ing into the West. The former
have left because they are alarmed
at reports that the People’s Police
will soon be doubled in size to
counter with the Rearmament of
West Germany; the latter have left
because they were asked to plug
youth dedications”—a Communist
substitute for church confirmations.
According to one teacher, the
(Continued On Pa*e Three)
By Ellen Summerell
The lowest point in the life of any Salemite
is Sunday night. I’ve been here all weekend;
I've.done my economics and my French, and
I’m sick and tired of playing three-handed
bridge.
It all started with supper. Chicken salad
and peaches aren’t very filling. (Somehow,
no one ever has any money on Sunday night.)
I surely would like to have a hamburger-
hut I won’t think about that; it just makes
me feel worse.
I’ve been trying to read a history parallel,
but every few paragraphs I’m distrubed by
distracting noises—male voices outside. Then
I forget what I’ve just read.
I don’t want to go to bed. I slept nine
hours last night. Anyway, I want to hear all
about the weekend at State and Davidson;
it’s almost ten o’clock, so somebody ought to
be coming back before long.
Here comes my roommate now. She’s drag
ging her. suitcase and carrying her shoes, and
she has enormous bags under her eyes. She
must have had a fabulous time 1 I settle back
on the sofa and hear her exclaim rapturously
over her date, the orchestra, the party at the
fraternity house, and her state of exhaustion,
With much effort, she picks up her suitcase
and wearily plods up the stairs.
Here come the others. There'^s such a deaf
ening roar that I can’t tell what anyone is
saying, but I have a feeling that they all had
a pretty good time. I pick out snatches of
their so-called conversation;
“Best blind date I ever hope to have!”
“You should see my new niece.”
“Coffee at four o’clock in the morning.”
“Only a blast—that’s all!”
They all come over and bum a - cigarette,
from me and sit down to tell of their respec
tive weekends in a more sane "way, one at a
time. I hate to appear deaf and dumb, so I
venture a question.
“Oh, yes, I saw him—he was dating a real
queen. I think he pinned her last night.”
That really makes me feel great. I had
hoped he might come up to Salem some week^
end soon. Next time I’ll keep my mouth shut.
Everybody is yawning now, and they’re be
ginning to get up and. leave the living room.
Guess there’s no alternative but to go to bed.
I climb the stairs, open the door to my room,
and see that my roommate’s already asleep. I
stumble over her suitcase and crinolines, brush
my teeth in the dark, set the alarm, and crawl
into bed.
I’m really not very sleepy. I think about
what a dull weekend it’s been. I’ll be almosi
glad to go to class tomorrow.
Yes, I will be glad when tomorrow comes—
because then it will be only three more days
until Friday, and I’m going to Chapel Hill-
Next Sunday night I can come in dead tired,
with aching feet and, no classes prepared for,
with my laundry still to get together, and
thinking only of getting to bed—^^and feeling
absolutely wonderful!
Copy Editor _ Miriam Qoorles
Heads Editor - Toni Gill
Make-up Editor s^e Jette Davidson
Pictoral Editor j l^Teggy Horton
Music Editors . .....Ella Ann Lee, Beth Paul
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Siler, Francine Pitts, Moggi Blakeney, Mary Anne Raines, Judy
Williams, Phyllis Stinnett, Beverly Brown, Sarah Vance, Kay
Williams, Celia Smith, Pat Ward, Ellen Summerell, Ann Mix-
son, Kay Cunningham, Rachel Ray, Annette Price, Patsy HiH-
Ann Coley, Marianne Boyd, Mary Mac Rogers, Sissy Allen,
Emily Heard, Sudie Mae Spain, Eleanor Smith, Pat Greene,
Emma McCotter, Anne Edwards.
Ann Williams
Mariam My®''*
Business Manager _
Advertising Manager
Circulation Manager y^^n Dgrd^n Webh
Faculty Advisor
Business staff: Diane Drake, Marilyn Stacy, Pauletil
Sally McKenzie, Nancy Warren, Carol Cooke, Bum
Melinda Wabberson, Mary Brown, Dottie Allen.