io Page Four THE COLLEGE NEWS Wednesday, March 19, 1952 . THE COLLEGE NEWS FOUNDED IN 1914 Published weekly during the College Year (except during Thanks- giving, Christmas and Easter holidays, and during examination weeks) in the interest of Bryn Mawr College at the Ardmore Printing Company, Ardmore, Pa., and Bryn Mawr College. The College News is fully protected by copyright. Nothing that appears in it may be reprinted either wholly or in part without permission of the Editor-in-Chief. EDITORIAL BOARD Sheila Atkinson, ‘53, Editor-in-Chief Claire Robinson, ‘54, Copy Frances Shirley, ‘53, Makeup Margaret McCabe, ‘54, Managing Editor Judy Thompson, ‘54 Mary Alice Drinkle, ‘53 EDITORIAL STAFF Emmy Cadwalader, ‘53 Mary Jane Chubbuck, ‘55 A.A. reporter Barbara Drysdale, ‘55 Joyce Annan, ‘53 Barbara Fischer, ‘55 Ellen Bell, ‘53 Marcia Joseph, ‘55 Ann McGregor, ‘54 Anne Mazick, ‘55 Chris Schavier, ‘54 Margaret Page, ‘55 Kay Sherman, ‘54 Pat Preston, ‘55 Ann Shocket, ‘54 Caroline Warram, ‘55 STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Judy Leopold, ‘53 BUSINESS MANAGER _M. G. Warren, ‘54 Julia Heimowitz, ‘55, Associate Business Manager BUSINESS STAFF Vicky Kraver, ‘54 Claire Weigand, ‘55 ‘SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Barbara Goldman, ‘53 SUBSCRIPTION BOARD Lee Sedgwick, ‘53 Jo Case, ‘54 - Bobbie Olsen, ‘54 Suki Webb, ‘54 Marilyn Dew, ‘54 Molly Plunkett, ‘54 Liz Simpson, ‘54 Joy Fox, ‘54 Barbara Rasnick, ‘53 Karen Hansen, ‘54 Peggy Hitchcock, ‘54 Subscription, $3.50 Mailing price, $4.00 Subscriptions may begin at any time Entered as second class matter at the Ardmore, Pa., Post Office Under the Act of March 3, 1879 oe 7 Necessity Of Quorum All of our extra-curricular life is based on a student gov- ernment plan in which everyone is expected to participate. No one would want this system abolished in favor of a strict administration rule, yet many are unwilling to attend a class meeting (without the force of a fine) in order to perpetuate this system. Through the class meeting, the student may ex- press her opinions, participate in class activities, and vote for her choice of campus leaders, thus deriving personal ben- efits, as well as contributing to college life as a whole. It seems unfair for some students to benefit by this plan, with- out contributing something to it, at least their presence at a class meeting. For class meetings to function, a quorum is necessary. It is often very easy for a student to think that her individ- ual attendance at a class meeting is not important, especial- ly if she has little interest in the office for which nominations are being made or in class activities in general. The effort expended in attending a class meeting, however, is very small, and the presence of every student at the meetings is import- ant to the class, the college, and the individual. Faculty Column The News and Counterpoint offer an opportunity for students to express their opinions, observations, and ideas about events exclusive of strictly academic life, giving the readers a chance to participate in these extracurricular ex- periences. In contrast to this fact, the principal opportunity for students to know faculty members and their outside in- terests is through classroom connections. Therefore, most students know few professors beyond those with whom they have classes. As a possible bridge for this gap between faculty and students and in answer to many requests made to the staff, the News would like to initiate a faculty column which would appear as a regular part of the News and which would con- tain short articles contributed by faculty members pertain- ing to observations on any experiences aside from college life. Such letters as that contributed by Dr. Sprague for the issue of March twelfth show the extra interest which such a column might add, and we hope that the members of the fac- ulty can find time to contribute to such a project. Continued from Page 1 ruling a state, and that only a mystical, absolute, stable govern- ment could properly benefit its subjects. In quoting Maistre, Mr. Berlin gave several examples of the phil- osopher’s theory. that ‘Whatever is. reasonable collapses; whatever is irrational survives.” Maistre showed that the reasonable, logic- al free elections in Poland, where the best-fitted person was ostens- ibly chosen for each position, led only to unrest and disorder, while the monarchial system in the rest of Europe, where a man became ruler for the unsatisfactory reason that his father ruled before him, had been able to maintain peace, unity, and stability. Here reason fell before irrational policies. Maistre believed that the laws of nature, too, were lacking in the reason that was ordinarily attrib- uted to them. It appeared to him that nature was destructive, vio- lent, and furious. The earth was ~The candidates for League | Secretary are as follows: Molly Plunkett Muggy McCabe Barbie Floyd . (Marilyn Muir “perpetually steeped in blood”, and man, by his very nature, was a killing animal; he killed for food, adornment, attack, defense, shel- ter, and even for the sake of kill- ing. Just as man exterminated animals for these necessities and pleasures, so, thought Maistre, would he kill other men if uncon- trolled. ‘Since his instinct was de- structive, government must be in- stituted to control this instinct and to provide order. ‘Government, then, must be bas- ed on certain principles that are off-shoots of Maistre’s mistrust in man and in reason. Since criti- cism, uncertainty, and freedom of expression and thought are means towards the assertion of the vio- lent individuality of man, such ideals are harmful to the author- itative, powerful state. The only Clown-Like Characters Show Light Originality _ Continued from Page 2 and that “the breeze she makes in walking is a measure of wind ve- locity.” The poet too is impress- ed by Helen and when he sees her, “I faint, I foam at the mouth, and I improvise.” At the end of one such improvisation he adds, “Lis- ten and I can get even better ef- fects.” ; Hecuba, mother of Paris, played by Etienne Sturhahn, and Ronald Harper as the meek Troilus, adol- escent admirer of Helen, though their parts were smaller, gave a clear picture of their characters. Hecuba was the “grand lady of stage and screen” type and her tone of superior sarcasm was bit- ing and peppy. Troilus was excel- lent from his first shy encounter with the passionate‘Helen to the final scene in which the gates of Troy are opened and we see that he has finally overcome his shy- ness. The characters of Ulysses and Cassandra, however, seemed flat, and were paled by the other, more vibrant members of the cast. This could have been because of The Theatre Intime created a suc- cessful production, and though therc was a great range in the capacities of the actors, they man- aged to produce a homogenous, en- joyable and meaningful perform- the nature of the roles, however. ' French Philosopher Maistre Refuted Reason; Believed Nature Destructive, Violent, Furious way of exerting complete control over human beings is to base their society on something that they cannot question, rebel against, or he center of their au- thority must be mysterious, “some- criticize. thing which is terrifying, some- thing which is dark”. Only com: plete obedience to such sure, in- comprehensible, frightening “some- things” can prevent reason from taking possession of a man’s mind and destroying dogmatic author- ity. The government. proposed by Maistre is, of course, totally an- tipathetic to the social contract which was the newly-accepted the- ory of his liberal contemporaries. To Maistre, the social contract as- sumed the shape of a series of misconceptions leading to an un- realistic system. He could not ac- cept the proposition that a prom- ise was a natural relationship be- tween men; he could not accept the savage as a man with some habits of as great value as the ha- bits of civilized communities; the could not accept society as a mu- tual trust and belief in the good intentions of one’s fellow-men. His view of the ‘social structure was that it was built on man’s desire to suppress his very wicked in- stincts, to sacrifice his individual evil for his own protection. . This element of self-sacrifice was com- bined with man’s innate desire to be obedient to some power. By giving man some ultimate power to. obey, governments could main- tain peace and security. The power that Maistre thought man needed and wanted was, of course, without reason. One of his most famous passages speaks of the executioner as “the terror of The slate for Undergrad vice- president is as follows: Carol Sonne Kathy Ehlers Mary Lee Culver Joyce Greer human society, but . .. also the power that holds it together”. The dark, violent punishment repre- sented by the executioner is the bond that keeps government alive, If reason is denied, doubt and refutation cannot exist, and the oscillation that causes the down- fall of governments is thus done away with. To the end of absolute, irration- al, mysterious power, Maistre ad- vocated the abolition of the test- ing, examining, and questioning of science and literature, and a blind faith in the past, in the mystery of tradition, maintained by “po- tential terror”. The enemies of Maistre, as he defined them, were not just those who differed from his. basic precepts, but all who would not conform to irrational, unthinking obedience, “all persons who, in one way or another, ques- tion the order”. For an absolute, immobile, stable society, the reverence for myth, absolute authority, and terror pro- vided the best curb on the individ- ual and, according to Maistre, the only practical direction of his nat- urally destructive instincts. Mr. Berlin closed with a sum- mary of his five previous lectures, and Dr. Nahm expressed the col- lege’s gratitude for the opportun- ity to hear them. The slate for Undergrad sec- retary is as follows: — Suki Webb *Beth Davis “M. G. Warren Floyd *Tied Letter Two Students Claim Goodale Slights Assistance March 16, 1952 Editor of the College News News Office Goodhart Hall At the Princeton-Bryn Mawr Concert given here Saturday, March 15, a rude oversight was made in that no recognition was given to Lois Beekey who accom- panied most of the selections. El- len Powell was given an apprecia- tive half line in®@the News preview of the concert but neither she, Di- ane Druding, nor Lois had even a grateful wave of the hand on stage. Mr. Forbes, the Princeton di- rector, shared his applause with the two Princeton accompanists but Mr. Goodale seemed to forget that small yet graceful action of saying thank you to those who willingly gave their time to help make the concert a success. Lillian E. Smith, ’°53 Charlotte Drabkin, ’54 Disputation Over UMT Ends in Uncertain Loss Continued from Page 1 sults of polls of their campuses only on the first ballot, and then could vote according to individual preferences. Committee meetings held at ten o’clock on Saturday morning in Taylor were attended by represen- tatives from the nine member col- leges: Beaver, Bryn Mawr, Drexel, Haverford, University of Penn- sylvania, Rosemont, Swarthmore, Temple, and West Chester State Teachers’ College. Delegates met in 13 concurrent conferences to draw up items for the party plat- form, under such headings as for- eign affairs, civil rights, labor, tax- ation and finance, and agriculture. Committee reports at 1:30 yielded results such as that of the civil rights committee, which advocated fair employment practices legisla- tion, elimination of the poll tax, repeal of the McCarran act, and a federal anti-lynching law. To this the assembly added a provision outlawing loyalty oaths other than constitutional oaths of office. The health and welfare committee ad- vocated a compulsory national health program and a system of federal aid to public schools, as well as scholarship aid to worthy college students. Perhaps the most debated committee report was that of the Military Affairs Committee. Originally taking a stand against Universal Military Training, the report was amended by the assem- bly to be favorable towards UMT. However, when it came to a final decision on accepting the report of the committee as a whole, the en- tire report was turned down by the assembly, by three votes. Tem- pers rose as appeals to the deci- sion of the chair for a recount were lost. The conference was opened by a welcoming address by Jane Cas- ter, President of the Bryn Mawr chapter of ICG. Dr. John Roche, professor of Political Science at Haverford College, gave the open- ing address. The nominees for the first junior member to Undergrad are as follows: Muggy McCabe M. G. Warren Gleria Von Hebel *Caroline Morgan *Claire Robinson