Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Me GA coc "Best College Newspaper in South Carolina" Member of South Carolina College Press Associatiot Published Weekly by the Various Literary Societie Terms--$1.50 a Year Entered at the Columbia, South Carolina Postoffice oI November 20, 1908, as Second-Class Mail Matter NEWS STAFF ISADORE PoLIER .....................Editor-in-Chiej W. LEE CRocKER ..................Managing Edito+ W. O. VARN .........................News Editot FaRD MINSHALL .....................Sports Editot Miss ELLEN HOUGH ..................Co-Ed Tdito JIMMY BALDWIN ...................Peature Editot REPORT ERS Thomas Wofford, W. J. Thomas, James Hearon Harold Hentz, A. W. Holler, Robert Ingram, E. R King, J. L. Murden, W. A. Brunson, Elizabeth Hardy Catherine Phillips, Elizabeth Lindsday, Ora Jackson News ITEMs may be handed in to members of the staff, or phoned to editorial rooms at 907 South Mais Street, Phone number 4109, between the hours oi 3 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, and 10 to 11 a.m. or 2:30 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays. BUSINESS STAFF C. W. ScoTT ..............................Manager J. R. PATE ...............................Assistani R. B. HILDEBRAND ........................Assistani SAM READY ...,.........................Circulation FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1926 Gamecock Spurs A hint for the Highway Department on how tc test the strength of a new bridge-put a copy of a Sunday edition of one of the large Northern news. papers on a truck and drive across. But first secure a nervy driver. ** * The Gamecock has a new staff to roost on. * * * A floor caved in with 500 girls dancing the Char leston in Atlanta-we suggest it as a substitute fdr dynamite. - U.S.C. - Editorial Comment If the editors of the million and one physical magazines that are enjoying large circulations could visit the campus of the Jniversity they would be astounded by the number of athletes found in our student body. In the space of an hour they could count some hundred of athletic letters. No doubt their aesthetic sensibilities would be gratified by the range of riotous color schemes and they would prom ptly become insane. WVriting in a more serious vein, we speculate on the niumber of athletic letters worn on the campus of the University. If statistics wvere our hobby we could make a contribution to the reports issuedl by the United States government. And besides, the combinations of color effects wvould furnish interest ing study for the classes in art. 'Take a big frog out of his little puddle and put him in the ponid-and he'll croak of the (lays wvhen he wvas lordl. Every year the prodigies of high school athletics depart for the various colleges and carry wvith them the dear old1 sweater with half a dlozen stars and crescents sewedl around their athletic letter. Some of them make the grade in colleg< sports; atnd somel (do not. But those wvho fail can proudlly struf about the campus with trophies of their earlier conquests dlecorating their manly chiests. This bewildering array of decorations is fine front the point of adding to local color-unfortunately it overdoes the job. A block "C" awarded by thE Uniiversity stands as mnuch dIance in that company as Job's sackcloth would against Joseph's creation it spring coats. The significance of the "C# is cheapen ed by this promiscuous wearing of high school letters There .an be no objection to home-town honors be. ing displayed on a thousand main streets but the.3 have no place on the campus of thle University. The athletic letters worn on the campus should be thos< won in University sDorts-. according to our stant. dards they are the highest honor that can be bestow. ed upon the athtlete. Butt the campus today lookt like a walking cross-word puzzle. Action has berep taken at some schools to ban th< * vearmitg of "foreign" athletic letters. We shouk need no such action at the University. The fact! should be sufficient to remove the undesirable con *dift6nr The wearers of high school letters are ad vei-tisinig their prowvess before they met Universit teiiemnsand they are cheapening the value' o the&rrnet "C". - L'Envoi In the basement below the presses are rumbling the "first run" is on. We must write our last editoral and leave much unsaid. The last bit of copy is se and the paper waits only for the editor's final "30", Another term of University history has been re corded in these pages, another editor has attempte to review that history with a critical, yet withal, constructive editorial department. By the degree of success achieved in these two fields, news and edi torial must the worth of this institution be measured In gathering news, The Gamecock has tried t bring before the student body events of interest Some of the accounts may have been a bit garbled the errors have been acknowledgeg. They have beer corrected not because some student or member o: the faculty might have been offended, but because every newspaper stands upon the foundation o truth. To the University of South Carolina is due muct honor. Her policies have made possibie an organ expressive of the student body. An institution les: wise might have sought censorship. The resul would have been disastrous-a fact confirmed b: the lifeless existence of too many college and uni versity publications. Where there is control o thought and expression there is usually no think ing, and, consequently, nothing to be expressed. We have a basic faith in the self-sufficiency of the press : no newspaper can long continue that does no have the highest regard for truth. No editor worthy of the name would deny that fact. But they woulk rise in thousands to damn the n'ewspaper that is sub servient to any particular class. In the college world this declaration or rights would refer to censorship by the administration-the cause of so many spineless and purposeIess publications. The light reflected by the press has never harmed any worthy cause. We may appear to become dog matic in these statements but removed from their formal dress, they reveal the soul of intelligent jour nalism. Granted that an editor must have the right to print the facts, we must also allow his right to criticize. He must be guided only by himsetf-lie is the summation of his equals, he is the crystalization of their reactions-otherwise he is a false prophet and his voice will be lost in the wilderness. Muz zling the press can have only one legitimate excuse -to hide a state of corruption and unintelligent di rection, from the criteria of, in our particular sphere the student mind. In the staff which begins its duties after the exami nation, we have a great deal of confidence. They were chosen in the only sensible manner: ulpn the basis of their records. The upward trend of th< University should mean much to The Gamecock; an< this paper should mean no less to the progressive position of the University of South Carolina. We must repeat that the University has made possible ar organ of the student body with control resting in the hands of the students. We believe that that trus has been justified, and that the future shall never re veal an instance where confidence has been abused. To speak in such absolute terms is to risk ~th sharp tongue of the sceptics. But if we thought that there was the element of demagogical falsehood ir our position, the first issue of this paper under our management would have remained unprinted. We have done our service as we thought honorably the work is done and we close with a last symbol -30 Take Stock, Young Man The strangest phenomenon of the ever-increas ing student body is the relatively small number who show an interest in forensic activities. The number of contestants is hardly larger than it wvas in the days when the University had only six hundred students. Such a condition is a sign that something~ is wrong in a much nearer p)lace than Denmark. In recent years critics of the art of speaking are wont to claim that writing has supplanted the spoken word. But their statement scarcely applies to the University since there has been no visible improve ment either in the quality of pp:blic speaking or written matter. We naturaliy wonder whether the enlarged student body contains more worthwhile men and women than it did fiv'e or six years ago. Making a place on a varsity debating team means no more than making a place on an athletic team. The true measure is revealed when University meets the best that other schools have to offer. There is plenty of opportunity for the beginner to win out against more experienced debaters. The individual stands to losing nothing-and the experience he gains is invaluable. Too aittle emphasis has been placed on forensic activities at the University. Few realize that the greatest contribution that this institution can make to the state is to furnish men who can take their place in South Carolina when they have completed their college careers. If oni-y a small fraction oi the newspaper space devoted to unfruitful speculation upon the benefit of college athletics men after they leave college were concerned with the development of speakers, the student world would realize the im pprtance of this phase of education. We can trace this attitude -back to its source Trhe great American public is more interested ir feats of athletes than it is with questions of national importance. Imagine, if you can, thirty thousant men andl women listening to a debate. But debate dlecidles the course of most of those spectators live: Athletic glory soon fades on the tapestry of time-un. less the athlete 1>ecome a bond salesman. The mar who has learned to think, and to think while in ac t;on s a man who s capitali.zing hiseduation. G06sestepping Amrc Some time ago at C. C. N. Y., a very heated dis cussion was carried on in the college paper over the subject of compulsory military training. Little care was exercised in the expression of student opinions, and the conservative limits set by the university au thorities. The editor evidently had a natural anti pathy to the military activity and did not hesitate to speak his mind freely. He was taken before the Dean, serverely criticised for allowing to be writ ten and for writing such violent articles, and advise-i to discontinue publishing anything on. the question. The editor complied. For a while a blank column appeared in every issue of the paper, blank except for the one sentence : "Here we would print what we think of compulsory military training, if we were permitted to." The whole problem was cleared up. The administration prepared several articles for publication of the subject, but the intrepid edit.or consistently refused to print them on the grounds that he had been forbidden to allow any articles on the subject to be run in the paper. He stoutly held t out on his point and had the satisfaction of winning. Throughout the country this independent attitude is being taken by college editors with the result that student opinion is more forthcoming and honest than at any previous time. Brown Daily Hearld - U.S.C. - THE WEEKLY ORACLE In Days of Short Skirts--It's An Ill Wind That Blows No One Good (By I. M. P.) SOMEONE has asked TO DENOUNCE * ** * ** WHERE the material SUCH an * * * * * * FOR THIS column ABOMINATION. * * * *** CAME from. AN urchin stopped me, * * * * * * THEY THOUGHT it HE WAS a dirty chap *** *** WAS just bits WITH a smile *** *** OF IMAGINARY THAT showed through * * * *** EXPERIENCES but THE grime. * * * * * THEY are wrong: HE ASKED not * * * * * * THIS COLUMN is FOR a nickel *** *** GLEANED from HE WANTED only *44 *4** LIFE itself A COPPER. * ** * * * THOUGH MOST of I grinned and ** * * ** US go blindly SHELLED OUT the * ** * ** THROUGH it. THREE PENNIES that *** *** LAST week HAD worried me. *** ** I HEARD a man AT THE sight *** *** BITTERLY condemn OF the three, * * * 4** NUISANCE taxes. HIS EYES popped *** *4** HE talked lon'g AND his smile AND SOURLY about WIDENED. * * * *** PENNIES that I huirried;y escaped . * * * *** MADE every purchase HIS THANKS and * ** *4** A disgusting , IN my rush MATTER, and as I forgot the I had three NUISANCE tax *** *** BROWNJES in my BUTl sincerely * * 4 *** POCKET and HOPED that never COUNTED THEM a WOULD A tax * * * 4*4 DEAD loss BE placed on .I was inclined SM LES and *** *** 'TO AGREE with him. HAPPINESS and *** *** I hastened to A FUTURE president MY OFFICE and OF the nation 4* * * * * BATTERED the GRINNED back TrYPEWRITER AT me. - U.s.c. - In Onion there is strength; Miss Heyward's onion was not stolen. Y.M.C.A BARBER SHOP EXCELLENT, WORK REASONABLE PRICES L. M. MCCARTY, Prop. Your Patronage Appreciated "The House of Quality* Established in 1844 THE R. L. BRYAN COMPANY Books, Stationery. Printing, Bind ing, Office Furniture & Specialties Columbia, South Carolina This I; To Invite You to The Rose Mary 1218 Washington Street Breakfast-Seven-thirty to Ten Lunch-Twelve to Four Dinner and Supper-Five to Eight-thirty Every Delicacy of the Season A Warm Welcome Always SANITA.RY CAFE 1345 Main Street SAVOY CAFE KNOWN FOR QUALITY Open Day and Night Polite Attention 1327 Main St. Columbia, S. C. SYLVAN BROS. Jewelers and Diamond Merchants Class Rings and Pins Always in Stock or Gladly Made Up 1500 Main St. Columbia, S. C.] Wing field's Drug Store 1443 Main Stet.