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0a/pxt^dMt4iieA^
Tuesday’s appearance of Mr. Eilan from
the Israeli delegation to the United Nations
and the coming appearance of Bosly Crow-
ther are just two examples of the effort the
Salem administration and facnlty are making
to bring outstanding personalties to our cam
pus and to broaden our knowledge of today s
world. These personalities have not been
limited to one field of interest, but have
covered everything from developments in
Nicaragua to the editing of the Atlantic Mon
thly. Besides the information we’ve acquired
from their visits, we’ve become familiar with
the views and characteristics of these eminent
people. • 1 4.
This service is one of the most beneficial to
us and we should certainly take advantage of
these opportunities.
The administration and the faculty deserve
recognition for the work they’ve done in this
So You Think You
Are The Only One
area.
“Age Of The Tail”
N.
0
I
T
U
L
0
V
Darwin wrote of E
Causing a minor Revolution.
But Darwin didn’t quite intend
For man to ape to R
E
D
E
S
c
E
N
D.
H. Allen Smith thought this amusing
Wrote a book very confusing.
He stated that people began to wail:
Their babies were born wearing a tail.
At first their appearance was upsetting
To have a tail was iinetiquetting.
Soon, however, the tail was accepted
And those without were soon neglected.
I quote;
“Nature abhors imperfect work
And on it lays her brand
And all creation must despise
A tailless man.”
(All this might sound quite absurd, however,
just why is the chemise more logically dubbed
the tailored sack by distraught male obser
vers, so popular uow? dust what new shapes
are women trying to hide? Certainly they
couldn’t be old age signs or the sack dress
would never have been on the market in the
first place).
This tail the author introduces made its first
appearance on September 22, 1957 all over the
world. It wasn’t very big at first, but at the
babies grew, the tail grew and grew and
grew. The effect on society, politics and
medicine was revolutionar3^ For instance,
what if you were a housekeeper born before
you were lucky enough to have a tail? First
you would go out and bu}' a “Minerva” a false
female tail manufactured by J. C. Dollar and
Co. then you would have to have tail holes
bored into all your furniture if you wanted
your children comfortable. Your daughter
would constantly beg for new tail sheaths, not
counting all the other new clothes ahvaj^s in
demand. Smith takes all possibilities into con
sideration and compiles them into an amusing,
satirical little book.
However, there’s a very substantial reason
for suggesting this book now, although it
first appeared on the market in 1955. Right
now we are all concerned with rockets and,
missiles and great displays of steel. Smith
writes a story of an earth-bound science fic
tion. The idea is outlandish, but he does em
phasize man again. It seems people are for
getting Sputniks aren’t put in the skj" b\" un
thinking, inhuman robots.
Forget Russia and ICBM’s and spend an
afternoon laughing over a mundane book. It
satirizes Darwin’s theory of evolution, the
sheep-like following of Americans for fads,
and advertising in its most outlandish forms.
Relief!
—Anne Catlette
Craig Reveals To Shaver
That Britain, U. S. Agree
Ever since I, came to Salem, I
have heard people talk about “Bull
Sessions” where several girls get
together and talk about something
besides men. I couldn’t believe
that such things really went on
until the other night When I acci
dentally walked into what I pre
sumed to be one.
Flicky and several girls were dis
cussing the differences between the
British and the U. S. systems of
government and the merits of each.
I started to turn around and
leave, just like you’re thinking
about doing, but decided that these
few minutes of informal education
would do me more .good than get
ting to play that extra hand of
brid.ge before 1 started to study
for the evening. The conversation
went something like this:
“Flicky, if our government is a
democratic one, then what kind is
the British government?”
“Why, it’s democratic as well,
only yours is a federal government
and ours is a unitary one in which
there is only one central govern
ment.”
“Y >u mean that this is in con
trast to our three branches — the
legislative, executive, and judicial ?”
“Well, of course we do have
legislative, executive and judicial
branches of government, but the
legislative branch is supreme. The
Prime Minister can’t do anything
which is not supported by the
House of Commons, and English
justices have no power of stating
whether or not a law is constitu
tional. This would be rather dif
ficult anyway, since the English
constitution is mainljr an unwrit
ten one !”
“Does this mean you have no
checks and baances system, then ?
What about the House of Lords ?
Doesn’t this operate as a check on
the House of Commons, just as
our House of Representatives and
Senate act as mutual restraints?”
“Today, there is no checks and
balance system such as you have
in America. The House of Lords
used to operate as a check, but its
power has diminished consider
ably.”
“We feel that a checks and bal
ance system is necessary in a de
mocracy to prevent concentration
of power in the hands of too few.
Wouldn’t you say that the fact
that the House of Lords can no
longer check the actions of the
lower house is a bad thing?”
“Well no, because of course, the
House of Lords is not an elected
body,, but its members are, in ef
fect, chosen by the monarch. The
lessening power of the Flouse of
Lords meant that the people had
consequently much more power.
"We feel that elections every five
years act as sufficient check, and
also that the absence of a check
and balances system means we can
get more done.”
“I don’t see how you can have
a democratic form of government
which has an ecomony essentially
socialistic. I have always been
under the' impression that Social
ism was not compatible with De
mocracy. That is one of the prin
ciples which makes us proud to be
(Continued on page four]
Eiie ^alemtte
•VM'y Friday of the College year
by the Student Body of Salem College
OFFICII—Lower Floor Main HaH
Downtown Office—304-306 5. Main St.
fMntod by the Sun Printing Company
Subscription Price-~$3.50 a year
Edltor-in-chlef Martha Jarvis
Associate Editor Mary Ann Hogwoed
Mews Editor Lodnd. OKver
Feature Editor Jem Smitbennan
Faculty Advisor Mie, j,^
Business Manager EUie MitckeN
Advertising Managers: Ann Brinson, Betsy
Gilmour.
Circulation Manager Mary Hook
Pictorial Editor Anne Ferdham
Asst. Business Manager _ . Peggy Ingram
Service Manager . . Barbara Rowland
Cartoonist Anis Ira
Headline Edher Mary J« Wynne
Columnists; Margaret Mac Queen, Sue
Cooper, Rachel Rose, Shan Helms.
Proofreader Susan Foard
Typists M. G. Rogers, Lillian Hollond
Re.^rlte Editor Judy Golden
February 14, 195s
Greek Coffee Club
Revived In Ivyland
Last W^ednesday when I had been peace
fully dozing in a crack in a classroom desk,
I found myself being gathered up with a set
of papers and put in a briefcase. Eventually
the briefcase was opened; I scampered out,
found myself in the Moravian Archives, and
hurried for cover in a filing cabinet drawer.
There in the drawer among the records of the
Moravian Church I found a palimpsest. I
looked carefully at the faded ancient Greek,
and here is what it said.
Minutes of the Athenian Coffee Club, De
bate histemenou, Anthesterion, Olympaid 683,
Year 1.
Wittgenstein: AVell Socrates, you are well-
known as a champion of the equality of wo
men, why is it that when a girl student does
badly wm say that she hasn’t been working,
Avhereas of a boy we would say that he is
dumb? Does this mean that all the girls are
of supernal intelligence?
Socrates: All it takes to pass my course is
a strong back and a weak mind.
Toynbee; But what does that make of your
role as teacher?
Soc: Well, -what is a teacher in the first
place ?
Toy; A teacher, Socrates, is someone who
helps students find out about the world they
live in.
Soc: Does a teacher simply show this world
to students or does he help them organize it,
too?
Toy: He helps them organize it, Socrates.
Soc: Does the teacher help students organize
their 'world by presenting them with the world
already organized or does he help them assi
milate the world, to their own ideas?
Toy: He helps thqm assimilate the world to
their O'wn ideas.
Soc; You 'would say^ then, Toynbee, that a
teacher is midwife to the brainchild of his
students.
Toy: Yes, Socrates.
Wit: But w'hat of the brainchild of the stu
dents \vhich turn out to be t'svo-headed mons
ters ?
Macaulay: We Spartans expose such child
ren on the hillside to die.
Soc: Yet is it not truly said that in some
cases t’wo heads are better than one? What
would become of onr progress and evolution
if we 'vvere to destroj” all mutations? Rousseau,
after all, gave birth to both modern education
and democracjT
Montague: Could we say, then, that a teach
er, like a doctor, diagnoses and treats ills m
a student’s brainchild and then returns it to
the parent’s care?
Wit; This analogy has its limitations: surely
one of the aims of a teacher is to make a stu
dent able to take care of his own brainchild
ren; and surely one of the benefits a teacher
gets is, so to speak, the use of the students
brainchildren for his own purposes.
Soc: Then to return to our earlier metaphor,
student and. teacher show each other the
world.
Wit: Yes, and it’s to be hoped that both
share the fun of making discoveries.
Willard: But let’s be realistic: this coopera
tion is a fine ideal, but a student has to have
some basic knowledge to discover anything'
AVit: Otherwise instead of a brainchild, the
student has onlj^ a ease of false pregnancy.
Soc: We must of course, have a real brain
child and not an imitation of one.
AA^it; And we must be able to take care ot
it.
Soc: AYould yon say, then, that the criteria
for education are a knowledge of the world
and an ability to organize it?
Wit: Yes, hut only if this is understood as
including the perceptiveness to recognize facts
and the discipline to control them.
Toy: AYell how do you define the goal of a
teacher in that case?
Ussher: Hey, check that.
Rubens; A’’erily, callipygian, what?
At this point the record comes to an end.
—Plato Tendrils, Sr.