Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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CROWING FO UNIVERSITY OF Member af Assocla Distributor of 4 Founded January 80, 1908, with Robert Elliott Gonzales as the first editor, "The Gamecock'" is published by and for the students of the University The opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are not necessarily those of "The Game JACKIE SOUTHERLAND, EDITOR MURRAY SEAMAN, MANAGING EDITOR ELLIOTT WARDLAW, BUSINESS MANAGER News Editor ................. Ruth Barker Campus Editor ........... Tommie Herbert Sports Editor ............. Ralph Gregory COLUM Rudy Thigpen, Mordecai CARTOONIST BUSINES Pedie Hiers, Bobby S REPORTOR Jinx Wilson, Leo M. MacCourtney, Bart Davidson, Bob Cameron, Billy Watson, Arnie Fi Gipei At last-maybe. The Student-Faculty Committee of the * tudent Council may swing into being in the ext few weeks. It had been suggested that he committee, a legal but dead one, should e rejuvenated this year. Student Council napped up the idea; it was batted back and orth until we sort of forgot who had the bat. ow the year is almost over, barely enough ime to flunk a few courses; but this Student ouncil will start the ball rolling and next ear's new one will have to continue the rganizing. I talked to Admiral Smith Monday morn ing, and he assured me that the committee was in the process of being called. The only difficulty at present seems to be that a con venient time must be hit upon for meeting. The committee was once a powerful organ ization on campus. It was fondly called the "Gripe" committee. Students felt free to air their complaints; the committee heard of the troubles about the campus, discussed possible solutions, and acted. If a student felt that he was getting a raw deal, he had something, or someone, to take the matter to, instead of being shuttled from one dean to another. The committee, in its unorganized form, has already received problems that students want solved. One problem that could cer tainly be discussed is the much di'sputed Always 1 Factories spring into being, the world unites to end human miseries, scientists bring forth from a test tube the answer to the world's questions, and progress comes relentlessly on. But some places are sheltered from the sun of advancement, and these sheltered places grow old and moldy and damp and useless, but yet they keep their power and will not yield to this progress. In medicine the outdated can kill, and in government it can be equally ruinous. Among the many things that cling like barnacles and leeches is one that affects us all-the electoral college or system, often called in states, the county unit system. And two governing bodies near to South Carolinians have this system-Georgia and the United States of America. Georgia is of no interest, perhaps, to you. Its system allows South Carolina to remain at least one state from the bottom in the ladder of forty-eight rungs. But the United States affects us all, Georgian and South Carolinian. Another election faces us in a few short months, and it is time that we wake up to the fact that it Is not the people whose votes send a can didate into office. It is our dear founding fathers, who in 1789 drew up our national constitution. One hundred and sixty-three years ago there met a group of men who were to be the tools to shape our American government for centuries to come. Each was out to secure the best -for his "country," for in each mind was the idea that the state which he repre sented was In reality a sovereign nation con senting to join with others for protection. So they debated about representation in this new and unique government. The usmall states argued that .they would be outnumbered in a representation based on numbers. CoC R A GREATER SOUTH CAROLINA ted Collegiate Press 3ollegiate Digest of South Carolina weekly, on Fridays, during the college year except holidays and examinations. cock." Publishing does not constitute an endorse ment although the right to edit is reserved. Society Editor .......... Norma Bergman Feature Editor ....... Furney Hemingway Copy Editor ................. Patsy Hutto Exchange Editor ............ Patsy Hutto Circulation Manager ......... Bobby Smith Asst. Business Manager . . John Parasho NISTS Peraky, Josef Euringer - Al Simson S STAFF rnith, Nedra Gilmore [AL STAFF ara Thompson, Mary Bloodworth, Chuck Bill Leggitt, Valerie King, Alan Baker, Green. I. ;eer matter of the 10 o'clock period. This would bq the only proper place for students to air their opinions on the free, but expensive period. This committee is the only one that could logically take some action to end the period, if that's what the students want. The way the committee is organized now, some faculty members with absolutely no interest in such a committee are more or less drafted into serving. Automatically included in the cor mmittee are the president of the uaaVAoaJ, da n Wo V,mI, Uea V 11en, student activities director, dean of arts and science, YMCA secretary, plus two faculty members elected by the committee as a whole. (The committee also has the student body president and students from each school represented in Student Council.) The laws laid down for the organization of the com mittee should be changed to read that all the faculty members should be elected. This change could be made only through a con stitutional amendment; and since the consti tution is presently in the stage of being revised, it would be useless to make the amendment now. You guys who, along with me, are -always griping about something but doing nothing, now have your chance. Let's back this com mittee; it is an unexcelled way for the stu dents to see that this university is operated with the students in mind. --J. S. rraditi.n And the electoral vote system arose from the same argument. States with small popu lations argued that they would have little voice in presidential elections if the actual number of votes cast decided the man to sit in the big chief's wigwam. They were afraid that the big, bad corrupt states would rule this new nation, .just as Georgian counties feared that big, bad corrupt cities would rule that state. And so; an institution that arose when this nation was a body of loosely connected cells has endured to this day, when we are sup posedly a well and closely knit government. A government which has grown from a baby to an adult (or a monster?) has continued on a baby's milk formula. Why? Have we this much fear and rever ence for our founding fathers, or are there those among us who would preserve state supremacy ? If we have this fear of our originating national leaders, then we are fools. They were men; they could see only so far and, indeed, they saw far, for their work has lasted almost two centuries. But they could not see that the day would come when we would be one country, strongly united, and not separate, grasping states. Therefore, we must aid our founders. We must preserve their reputation and help correct something which was right then, but which is definitely a mistake now. And as for state supremacy--no, I am not unaware that each state is different. Each state, like each person, has different needs, and in this we must maintain in dividuality. But surely we are broad enough intellectually to consider ourselves citizens of this nation, rather than, foremost, citizens of our respective states. Look at Georgia. Look at the state which saves you from being the cow's tall and look what its inner electoral system has done, not for It. but to It. -.__ . CAMPUS HUMOR? MURRAY SEAMAN Who's Guilty? It comes to mind that now, when just about everything being said about college athletes is derogatory, would be a good time to insert a word or twelve into the records on their behalf. In the last couple of years the athletic apple has turned slightly sour. And in most cases it has been the athletes themselves who have been pointed out as the guilty parties. Oh, every now and then some member of the press has written to the effect, "What about the laxity on the part of coaches and university officials," but when the police are forced to take steps (as in the basketball scandals) the ball player is the one who is left to stand alone in front of the judge, and I i iean alone. Just last week three basketball players from an out standing team of a few years back were found guilty of conspiring with gamblers to fix basketball games. As these three men faced the judge in the New York courtroom there was not, to my knowledge, any one of the other guilty persons present. By this I mean the president of their college or their ex-coach, who in their zeal for athletic recognition, were the ones who led these boys into big time sports by showering them with money (the same green stuff the gamblers used) and free education. We have all heard, by now, some stories of the fabulous presents heaped upon high school boys in an effort to get them to enroll in a certain school to enhance the institution's athletic eminence. I know of one high school basketball player who received offers from 4 differeit basketball factories ipon graduation. It's doubtful if this boy could have had the requirements for admission to all of these schools. This makes t clear to me that no consideration of the individual is taken. ,oaches and scouts don't bother with such trivial matters is will the boy be able to get what he may want out of a :ollege education or will he be-pfeparld to get along in the )usiness world by his own steam if he should happen to get i degree. The important thing is, unfortunately, can he score askets or pass or block? I would not attempt to condone dishonesty on the part >f athletes. But the majority of the present generation of them have grown up not knowing that college sports were at first played for the "fun of it." Then again, comes the guestion of why shouldn't the athletes get paid ? Saturday after Saturday stadiums all over the tountry are filled with what could be called the guiltiest parties of all, the fans who make idols out of the players. These fans bring tremendous sums of money into college treasuries. If the boys didn't put out their best the fans would stop coming . . . and so would the lucre. I would like, some day, to get a gathering of athletes and coaches and college officials together and let the boys tell their elders just what high financed athletics did to them instead of for them. As long as we are trying to clean up a depressing situa tion, let's scrub hard and eliminate all the muck. FURNEY HEMINGWAY On 6&lerlainm.nl Jazz has always been somewhat dominated by trumpet players. This is due, perhaps, to the fact that a trumpet can make more noise than almost any other Instrument; but more likely it Is the result of the ac tivity of a series of men of such ability that they will never be forgotten as long as good music is appreciated. These artists are collected by RCA in an album entitled, "Great Trumpet Artists," one of their series of "Immortal Performances." The choice of trumpeteers was wise; no one can doubt that Bunk Johnson, Bix Beiderbecke, Roy idldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Bunny Berigan, or Louis Armstrong are great artists. Bunk Johnson, pioneer of New Orleans jazs, came out of obscurity to record his rollicking version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" In 1945. His driving, brilliant horn is one of the best ever heard In the traditional New Orleans style. Bix Beiderbecke is featured with Paul Whiteman's ork on "From Monday On." Unfortunately Whiteman dominates the scene, but Bix gets In a few hot licks now and then. Bix, the center of all the great jazz men of his day, had a tremendous influence on Jazz. Louis Armstrong blows a low down and mean trumpet on "Basin Street Blues." From time to time during the recording he lays down his horn to give out with some of his famed scat singing. Louis plays the way they taught-him In the Crescent City, but with a style of his own that Is strictly'Armstrong. Bunny Berigan races through "Frankie and Johnnie" showing great emotion and drive. Berigan blew his immortal horn with every band of note between 1930 and '40. Roy Eldridge, the link between the traditionalist and the bee boppers, shows his stuff on "Swing Is Here," backed by Gene Krupa. Dizzy Gillespie, a South Carolinian and pioneer of bop, goes through "Anthropology" In the style he originated. With styles ranging from primitive emotion and drive of Johnson tthe modern hop of Gillespie, these men have created music that will MORDECAI PERSKY We're glad to hear via the Vibeyajd Wireless that some official action is being taken on an idea originated in the Gamecock this fall. There may be student representatives on Carolina's discipline, committee. At the time the suggestion was made, we considered the possibility of its fulfilment slight. Since .then, through a little guided thinking, we began to consider the addition of students to the~ committee as not only possible, but even probable. After a committee decision made during the fall semester, we and a number of Carolinians' began to look at the die. ca"pline committee as a tyrannical combine through which certain faculty members maintained their tyranny with a degree of diabolical happiness. It is reasonable. to assume from existing evidence that nothing is farther from the truth. A careful poll of discipline committee members revealed that most of them considered their trust sacred, but that none -were anxious to retain the sacred distinction for as many more fractions of a second than necessary. It is a hard job to administer justice to college students: There are too many conflicting precedents, too many examples to be set, and lastly, too much leeway between the worlds of the judge and-the judged. The judged may always swear that they dp their best, but they are probably never sure that their bet was good enough. For that reason we think there will be great wisdom in the contemplated addition of voting student members to sit with the judges. Their presence should remove any need for resorting to precedents, and it may provide a working key to the setting of examples. But its principal service will be in taking up any slack between the moral worlds of two generations. An on-the-sly but concerted effort by a student group to find out if anybody is getting a dirty deal at the university book store revealed the following: As far as can be aseer. tained, the prices for new books are fixed and are the same as anywhere else. Also, if any dirty dealing is done, the used book department is responsible, and the defense for this is that this department is purely a public service. and for that reason may scalp with impunity. Be that true as it may, the investigators seemed satisfied until they discovered that profits from new and used books alike go to the university athletic fund. Then a few of the campus leaders bega1 to raise a smell. They wanted to know if the athletic fund needed the money. Then they began to hedge around the secret of secrets: how much money does the athletic fund need, and how much does it use? After kicking around the idea of investigating this new phase of possible monkey-business, the investigators were taken aback to find that even President Smith was forced to give up on the self-same inquiry after persistent Inquisi tiveness in the early days of his administration. The inves tigators, who are members of the ROTC, said they didn't care anyway, because Uncle Sam was footing their book bilL So the smell subsided and evaporated in the open air. TOMMIE HERBERT -Musicul Struins There Is no Gamecock orchestra. We have had such an organization in the past. With enough encouragement, a group of students will endeavor to form the orchestra. The formation of the orchestra could be the means of having more dances for less money. The organization could play for affairs off-campus to help defray expenses. The group would necessarily start out with the minimum of equipment,- but would improve its facilities as the orchestra became a paying proposition. With a little financial backing from the university with which to begin, music stands could be bought, and after a while the members could be dressed uniformly. Until then they would wear dark suits. The proposed plans include a desire that the administrad tion will favor this organization, and allow it to become 4 representative campus organization. Clemson and The Citadel both have more than one orchestra apiece; there are enough campus social activities to support at least one at Carolins. Of course the school would have to back the group. This would include not only the administration, but the studenlt4: and the campus organizations. The orchestra has great promise, as almost every orchestra In town has at least o* Carolina student playing with It. There is no reason why this talent could not be combined. There must be enough jold provided to give them enough employment. The Gamecock orchestra would be governed by a board, of directors composed of members of the orchestra and S faculty ativiser. The financial proceeds would be equall( divided among the members, with the board of directot handling this, discipline, hiring and dismissal, and othe~ problems.. This orchestra would not in any way keep name bandSe off the campus. The group feels that a name band btiI valuable publicity to the school and adds to the pleasur campus life. Anyone interested in playing in the orchestra Canl conW Andy Medes at the University Grill. The iaames Wil4 withheld so as not to endanger their present emiplo The opinions of all the students on the pWhn will be a eiated.