University of South Carolina Libraries
I -^GAMECOCK Published on Friday of every week during the college year by the Literary Societies under the supervision of the Board of Publications of the University of South Carolina. Entered as second class mail matter at the Columbia, South Carolina, postoffice on November 20, 1908. Member of South Carolina College Press Association. Member of National College Press Association News articles may be contributed by any member of the student body, but must be in by Wednesday night before Friday's publication. All copy must be typewritten, double-spaced, and must be signed by the writer. Articles in the Open Forum will be published at the discretion of the Editor and in the order in which they are submitted, with the name of the author signed. "SUBSCRIPTION RATE?$^00 PER COLLEGE YEAR CIRCULATION?2150 COPIES Advertising rates furnished upon request Offices in the basement of the Extension Building Gamecock office phone?8123, No. 11 I STAFF LeRoy M. Want Editor-in-Chief William 1. Latham - Managing Editor ASSOCIATE EDITORS Dorothy Penland --------------- - Associate Editor Darice Jackson - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - Associate Editor Lewis 11. Wallace Associate Editor J. Mitchell Mouse - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Associate Editor W. G. Jeffords ------- - Associate Editor Allen Rollins ------------ - Associate Editor John A. Giles - -- -- -- -- -- -- Assistant Managing Editor John A. Moroso - -- -- -- -- -- - Assistant Managing Editor N. W. Brooker --------- - Assistant Managing Editor EDITORIAL STAFF W. B. King - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- News Editor Ray AntlEy - Sports Editor Leon Keaton - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - Alumni Editor E. C. Gilmore - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Exchange Editor Sanders Guignard - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Fraternity Editor J. H. Galloway --------------- Y. M. C. A. Editor Catherine Rem ley - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Joke Editor j Assistants: Marian Finlay, J. A. Bigham, Frank Durham, Alan Schafer, Louise Edwards, Vernon Spears, W. D. Coan, Faith Brewer, Carolyn Burnet, Earl Skidorc, Harry Morse, and O. H. Skcwcs. Names of heelers do not appear in mast-head CO-ED Frances Black - -- -- -- -- -- - Co-Ed Editor Millie Taylor - -- -- -- -- -- -- News Editor Ethel Galloway - -- -- -- -- -- - Society Editor Jean Wiciiman - -- -- -- -- -- - Feature Editor BUSINESS W C. Herbert - - - - - - - - Business Manager Sam Taylor ------- Assistant Manager J. W. Brown - - - - - - - Assistant Manager CIRCULATION J. Roy Prince - -- -- -- -- Circulation Manager Lester Hamilton ------- Assistant Manager Melton Goodstein - - - - Assistant Manager CROWING FOR: News Bureau?Even a great University must advertise. Student Activity Building?This is the only way by which student activities can be properly centered and administered. Voluntary Chapel?A modern tendency and a good one. Football Stadium?A needed addition to the University's equipment. Paved Sidewalks?Not only a need, but an immediate necessity. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1931 "No news is good news," but darned if that's so with a newspaper. Someone said that this is a. good paper. "In fact," she added, "the paper used is of the best quality." ? % "It's a great life if you don't weaken," the old saying goes. Yes, and it's a great wife jf you don't take 'er. Judging by some girls' lips, they must have a lot of red blood. Maybe there's blue blood there, too, but they keep that well hidden. And after that student body meeting of recent date, we all agree that Cole Bease should be elccted president of the student body. A few members of Thk Gamkcock staff are so busy on Wednesday and Thursday nights that they couldn't get off to attend their own funerals. Us boys complain because the girls' gym classes use the coeds' own courts so frequently. They don't have any consideration for married men. and now they're even getting something us single boys would like to have. u. s. c. an open letter to the editor-elect Dear Mr. Wallace: When the Board of Publications elected you to the next editorship of 1 in-: Gamkcock an unusually heavy responsibility was placed upon your shoulders. Whether you succeed or not will depend largely on whether you approach your duty with an open mind and with the intention of being fair, regardless of the costs. It is up to you to make of Tiik Gamkcock a real mirror of today's events to present the good and bad in their true proportions. To say this is simple, but it is hard to accomplish this ideal, for that is just what it is. Many students seem to think that it is this paper's duty to publish only that which is favorable to the University and to individuals? nothing, Air. Wallace, could be further from the truth. When the University and certain individuals want only favorable publicity, and want it bad enough, some means of supporting a press bureau will be found. On all controversial subjects, and particularly in the case of campus politics, you must be careful to present an unbiased view of happenings. In connection with the recent political troubles, this paper has been severely criticized on the grounds of showing partiality, but the very fact that supporters of all candidates were equally loud in their denunciations shows fairly conclusively that we have kept a straight and impartial course. Because a report of any certain happening will injure one or more candidates is no reason why it should not be printed. But here is where the use of discretion must come in. Do not injure a candidate or any other student unless it is necessary. As to whether it is or is not necessary, your own good judgment must be trusted. But, generally speaking, if many students know of the event anyhow, you must print it in order to uphold the reputation of your paper. And if your public (the student body) should have knowledge of it, your duty is to print it. Not many people will read your editorials, Mr. Wallace, but those who do are those who think, and you cannot fool them. Beware of childishness. Pick editorial subjects that amount to something; subjects that .are of real importance to the student body. Beware of any wellmeaning efforts on the parts of various friends to induce you to attack things that possibly should be attacked, but which are beneath your notice. Remember that you are entitled to your own prejudices but that they should be excluded from your editorship of Thk Gamkcock. It is seldom that a "soon-to-retire" editor really feels that his successor is more capable than he, but this is one case where you have demonstrated beyond doubt that you have the makings of a real editor? one better than this paper has been blessed with in some time. Live up to your reputation! Here's luck to you?you'll need it. ; ?The Editor. ANOTHER CONSTITUTION NEEDED One of the most crying needs on the campus is a constitution for The Garnet and Black. Politics in class and student body elections is one thing; politics in selecting the annual staff is quite a different matter. With the exception of the office of secretary-treasurer, and that a doubtful exception, student body and class offices are almost purely honorary, and politicking has no bad consequences, practically speaking. But when a position demands special ability and training, the effects of politics are serious. At present, the selection of the staff of The Garnet and Black is left entirely to the discretion of the editor. The Gamecock, though casting no aspersions 011 the present editor or staff, proposes the adoption of more regular methods in the form of a constitution similar to that of The Gamecock or The Carolinian. Under the present system, the outgoing editor nominates one person for each position, and the staff nominates one. Only these two nominees are eligible to run for any position, and there are no definitive specifications for their nomination. No check-up of the work of staff members is made. The personal element plays too great a part. Both The Gamecock and The Carolinian have improved greatly during the two years they have been operating under their new constitutions. The Carolinian has become more popular than ever before, and The Gamecock has won national recognition. The staffs of both these publications are picked 011 a basis of merit. Records are l<ept of all work done, and it is impossible for any position of responsibility to be held by an inexperienced or incapable person. This is as it should be. We would suggest a similiar constitution for Tlic Garnet and Black, with a board of publications, through which the student body as a whole could be represented, but could not- vote blindly. The board could consist of nine persons: one from each of the four academic classes, one from each of the three law classes, and two from the faculty, possibly the heads of the School of Journalism and the Department of English. The classes could have the privilege of withdrawing their respective representatives at any time. Each staff ' member could have two or more assistants, one of whom he would nominate to succeed him. The board would consider the nominations in the light of the records of the nominees' work. Thus the personal element would be reduced to a minimum, and the annual would profit. The student body is forced to pay for The Garnet and Black. It has a right to demand a competent staff. Only selfish motives could dictate otherwise. The present staff Is very likely competent, but the indefinite future must be prepared for. PUBLICITY BRINGS RESULTS In the issue of The Gamecock last week an editorial voicing the opinions of many indignant students was run severely criticizing the methods of holding student body elections. Much antagonism has developed toward this paper because of this editorial; however, the desired results were obtained. A committee from the student council has been appointed to determine the reason for such an excess of votes in the ballot box over the number of people whose names were scratched. Probably the most far-reaching results of this general indignation was the method by which the third student body election, held Tuesday, was carried off. A new form of ballot was introduced. This ballot was modeled after those used in the state primaries, although it was not an exact duplicate. A stub was attached to the ballot and both were numbered. Before a voter was given his ballot, the stub was torn off and deposited in one box and the voter placed his vote in another. When all the votes were counted and checked with the number1 of voters, there was no discrepancy. During the election only two members of the student council were allowed to stay 011 the polls and they also had charge of counting the votes. The Gamecock, in behalf of the student council and the student body, congragtulates Miss Dorothy Penland and Kenneth Grimsley for their efforts in putting 011 a race which was honest from beginning to end. Very little politicking was evident at the polls, as contrasted with the great amount manifested during the first two races. Probably most of the voters were "sewed up" before they reached the polls. Notwithstanding this, there should be 110 politicking whatsoever at the balloting place. No voter can cast his ballot honestly and fairly when one or more politicians are leaning over his shoulder trying to persuade him to vote a certain way. Be he ever so humble, each student enrolled at the University has a personal right to cast his or her ballot the way his or her conscience dictates. To remedy this unbearable evil a series of booths should be constructed, into which each voter could go when he votes his ballot. By this method 110 one would be pestered about his vote., There are several | more elections, such as those for the.chcerleadership and Garnet and Black to take place this year. It would not be a bad idea to try this experiment then. If it works, adopt it permanently; and if it doesn't, work out something better. Politics is a fascinating game, but when it is carried too far it becomes a disgraceful affair. The time to get people to support your candidate is before the election and not at the polls. When a person tells you he will vote for you, he rarely changes his mind when he goes to the polls unless undue pressure is brought to bear while he is scratching his ticket. With the system of booths installed, politics at the polls will amout to nothing and cleaner elections should result. u. s. c. THE GRIND: AN EXTINCT SPECIES Glancing at this term's list of Phi Beta Kappa initiates, the thing that strikes one's attention immediately is the fact that all of them belong to at least one student organization, and most of them to three or four. Of the thirteen students initiated this semester, eleven of them belong to social clubs, fraternities, or sororities, and nine to honorary and professional groups. The list includes presidents, vice-presidents, and secretaries as well as regular members. From which we infer that the day of the "grind" is passed. The student who devotes all his time to study has seldom been popular with his fellow students, and today it would appear that he is losing favor with the professors. No doubt the creature still exists, but hef is dying out in a hostile environment. For it is coming to be recognized that intellectuality and inteligence do not necessarily go hand in hand. College life is at best a sequestered, idealized mode of existence which makes it difficult for its victims to adjust themselves later to the rough-andtumble of practical living. The world is crude arid unlettered, and many college-bred men bark their mental and spiritual shins rather painfully before they become adjusted to it. Social activities in college go a long way toward offsetting th^e disadvantages, and it is only an unintelligent person who refuses to take part in them. This fact is coming to be recognized by an increasingly large number of pe6ple, with the result that the "grind" is ignored by students and teachers alike. Probably the most important reason for this change of attitude is the fact that college students represent a greater variety of types than ever before, with many types that are utterly new to the campus. In former times there were two principal types of college students: carefree young men who were being "polished" or "finished," and earnest workers who had great ambitions, or whose parents had ambitions for them, and who therefore felt it their duty, etc., etc., and all that. But now it is easier to go to college, and everybody's doing it. This condition has made necessary larger faculties, with a corresponding change in professor types. The modern professor is not the pedantic joke that was the professor of the eighties and nineties; he admires the hardworking student, but he also demands that the student be human, even as he himself. These changes, together with those brought about by the inventions of modern science, have made for greater enlightenment and greater happiness all around. Learning is beginning to lose its forbidding asj>ect, and it may be that in days to come young people entering school will look forward to education as an adventure rather thai: as a necessary evil. t \ * ) / . .V ' ' . S Clipped Comment Jackal Journalism There are times when the deeds of certain types of so-callcd newspapers and the members of their staffs are so offensive, so brutal and so lacking in common decency that they should arouse the anger, condemnation and protest of every respectable member of the Fourth Estate. Not so many weeks ago in New York, a woman of questionable character was found murdered, slain probably to prevent her revealing what she knew tof conditions in that cultured metropolis. Coming on the heels of stories of corruption and vice, her death attracted wide attention. Her past was brought before the world at larger Then certain enterprising members of New York's newspaper colony discovered that the slain woman had a daughter 16 years old. The daughter was ignorant of her mother's past. Their names were different, the mother having taken another name after being divorced from the girl's father. A bright student, the daughter was happy in her school work and the association of classmates. Reporters and photographers ferreted her out. They disclosed her mother's life to her. They besought her for photographs, for statements, for "her story." The bewildered child, for she was little more than that, posed and talked. The reporters and photographers went back to their dens and presented their spoils. Pictures and type soon proclaimed to the world the daughter's relation to the slain woman. A new lead, new developments in the case. Good work! Perhaps a raise or a bonus 1 But what of the victim of the enterprising and aggressive4 reporters and photographers? Spurned by her former associates, shocked by the ghastly things that had been revealed to her, the 16-yearold child wrote a few pitiful lines in her diary. Then?they found her body in the gas-lilled kitchen of her home. But the editors, the reporters and the cameramen were not even then content. This new development must be covered. There was the funeral. Here is what one Philadelphia paper had to say in part about the clash between the police and more than a score of photographers at the open grave: "The photographers, who had come from New York, Washington, Philadelphia and many other cities in the East, were rushed by the policemen as they set up their cameras to take photographs of the final ceremonies. . . . So great was the turmoil which raged about the open grave that professional pallbearers snatched the coffin from the eight schoolgirl chums of the dead girl and rushed it to the grave. There, with the shouts of the battling police and photographers almost drowning out the words of the burial service, the coffin was swiftly lowered. . . . "A crowd of nearly 500 formed a background for the melee which marked the finale of the tragic and pathetic story. . . . The battling was so fierce that the photographers had no opportunity to set up their cameras, and had difficulty in saving their apparatus from the police. In the end all of them, including some of the best press photographers in the country, went away without pictures.'' But there was to be still another victim of the jackal press. The brother of the slain woman, following the suicide of his niece, suffered a mental collapse and was taken to a psychopathic ward strapped to a stretcher. What a glorious * chapter for the history of American journalism! Spare the Innocent Speed t' day when all newspapers will follow the example of the respectable and conscientious members of the press in refraining from dragging the names of innocent persons into sensational news stories. Because one member of a family may slip, all the members of that family, at least the immediate relatives, become the prey of certain newspapers and their representatives. No matter how they may protest or shrink, the glare of publicity must be theirs. Hand in hand with tactics such as these goes the printing of the names of juveniles in connection with perhaps their first offenses. Also the printing of the names of criminal assault victims. Many newspapers have adopted and observe rules of decency in cases such as these. They print the stories but leave out the names of the juveniles or of the assault victims. No hard and fast rules can be made, perhaps, as different situations require different handling. Is it too much to suggest that editors, managing editors or city editors might call the corresponding editors of the opposition papers, suggesting that certain names be left out? , When 16-year-old girls are drive^ Cock-Tails 1 The editor-in-chief says he is going to announce the creators of this column soon. Oh, well, w^ have our last words all thought up: It's the truth that hurts. , 4 \ . The recent student body meeting was the most fiery since the time of Donald Russell, Dode McDow, Tom Moore Craig, Burton Shook and company. Them was the days! i Class elections were held by open '] vote, and upperclassmen controlled the freshmen by throwing hymn books from the gallery at the speakers. Conditions got so bad our great con- , stitution was produced. Wonder what will be the result of the EeagueCulbertson era? If this archery-golf business proves j a success, next year we might try 'fj having Mr. Dean put on "Twelfth '% Night" on half the field while they vf. play the Carolina-Clemson game on the other half. v The annual Art Exhibit will he held ] at Flinn Hall soon. -Wonder what . colors the students will use on their little cretonne birds this year? All the high school students on the campus this week called to mind the days not long gone by when we were in their place. Doesn't seem like it \ was a short four years ago, docs it? i i Boy, wasn't that a close track meet with the Tigers last week? So far as we can see they don't have much to roar about in that victory. And just wait 'till the state meet is over, they won't even purrl Pretty views on our campus: The main campus with the large green trees?looks like a banquet hall. The O. D. K. sun dial, when there are | no politicians hanging around. Gibbcs Green, about eleven o'clock at night, with a full moon shining down 011 it. < The shrubbery groups in back of Leconte, look like a part of an English'/ manor grounds. The vinc-covercd circular stairway at the back of the v'l Library, reminds one of a Norman j j castle. The green lawn in back of Pinckney College at dusk. The sil- /houette of the new educational building against the western sunset. The Y. M. C. A. is to have its retreat down on the coast this spring. If the boys get any good out of their surroundings, they should plan a good program for next year. It really won't be bad to frolic on the beach for a week-end, sho' 'nuff! When it comes to serving victories, call on our tennis team! They put them over, don't cha know? "In the spring a young man's fancy"?the words of the poet must be true from the number of star-eyed couples wandering forlornly over the greensward! And some of the couples that held hands all winter long now give each other the cold shoulder when they meet. But such is life and love. The others don't seem to heed these examples of departed love and keep on in their way! And the phone to Columbia College is busy all the time. The operators do their best to help the heart-torn lovers to get in touch with their ladyloves but too few lines are the cause! Just five weeks until the examinations are here. Remember how this time last year the Honor System fight was causing such a row 011 the campus? It seems to be a thing of the past now. Does the Honor Committee ever meet? Our reference 011 the "Clemson sots" to which the Tiger Exchanger took such exception, was based 011 our observations at the game last fall. "vSic semper Tigers" (a la Papa Goose) because then it looked like they were permanently wet. And as for Mother Goose, perhaps lie wanted that old one about? "Jack and Bill went up the hill, To get a drink of likker"? to suicide by the persecution, the thoughtlessness, of the press and other relatives to madhouses it is time for a halt to be called. Jackal journalism is the worst enemy of a free press. Censorship or other forms of legal restraint of the press are entirely probable unless respectable newspapers keep their columns clean and try to clean up those of their irresponsible brethren. The newspaper business or profession, as you may term it, can be made one of the highest callings of today and the futuf? or it can become one of the lowest on the face of the globe. Decency must prevail if the press is to achieve and maintain the position it should. ?Quill of Sigma Delta Chi.