Page Two

The Uphill Road: Recovery

We were elated to learn that last week’s plea to the
Student Council concerning the resurrection of the honor
system at Grinnell did not go totally unlleeded.

True, the committee set up last year to study such a
move has not made much progress beyond the planning
stages. Last spring this committee made up a tentative
plan and submitted it to tile administration. This plan,
based Oil the old system which illgloriously collapsed back
in 1946, was carefully taken apart by the administrative
group to which it was submitted, revisions, substitutions,
and insertions were suggested and, with the end of the
school year, that was that.

At the beginning of the present semester, the Student
Council, parent organization of the honor System commit-
tee, embarked on a number of new projects uhich more or
less obscured the possibilities of much being done on the

. honor system for the first half of the ’49-’50 year.

We understand, however, that this week, perhaps at
this Very moment, that committee is once again in session,
pounding away at the very knotty problem of revwifylng
a defunct regime

Unfortunately, something like an honor system cannot
be accomplished over night. It cannot be compounded and
tossed into a crucible, boiled for three minutes, and then
slapped under a microscope for final analysis. It would
hardly seem worthwhile to even consider any system if it
did not carry an iron-bound clause guaranteeing a four-

SCARLET AND Black

Debaters Give With -Wordsiand Music;
Grinnell Still Lifres Private Ownership

/ Left to right:

/

 

year trial period in the holy fires of usage.

We feel that the great hope for a successful honor sys—
tern would of necessity rest in its becoming traditional. It
is impossible to imagine such a system being pronounced
an immediate success under any circumstances.

An honor system’s workability depends, in the long run,
on the acceptance by the “general will" of the theory of
freedom and honesty as chaste bedfellows. Naturally this

By Joan VVohl
Witty repartee threatened for a time to bury the issue in the had led to the destruction of

debate between Robin Day and Gcoifi-ey Johnsoanmith of Oxford
university and Mac Wright and Dave Scott of Grlnnell Tuesday
night on the resolution “that the public ownership of basic indus—
tries and essential Services is in the best interests of a democratic
society.”

Blond and very British, Johnson-Smith spent the first five
minutes entertaining the audience with such comments as “After
the debate we will amend a reception in an ancient place of loam

Friday. December 2, I949

Mack \Vright, Davis Scott, Robin Day and Geoffrey Johnson-Smith.

‘pl‘oflt motive, he said that it
crops in the depression when 13
million people was unemploy-
cd. He also said that by hold—
ing a small block of stock, one
poi-son could control a large inn
dustry under a capitalistic sys-
tem.

wiighi made three main points

Reﬁnance Wi“ “me 510““ the concept m "S has” fm“ ing, Loose hall lounge; and 1 understand that once I get there ii

is fraught ,with social and

psychological stumbling blocks.

Our honesty is a thing which in most environments has

been watched over with the greatest care.

Sharp penalty

and oppressive guardianship mark the development of ‘mosti
of our honor codes in childhood. These ties are old, firmly

entrenched. B

Is there such a thing as voluntary
ed this question for many a century.

osophers have battl

e honest or else! This has been the cry.

honesty? The phil-

Would it be conceivably possible to construct and onerate an

honor system based entirely on the theory that c
Id be the prime result for obedience to the system

good wou .
rather than a slap in the face

‘reater

for disobedience thereto“.7

We like to think such is possible and are reasonably

sure that this is the goal

tem based, as in the past, on

will be a start of inestlmable

of any such system. But a sys

penalty for the wrong-deer
value. ,

Hambro Discusses UN With IRC;
/ Deals With Veto',‘Elections, Justice

Dr. Hambro, president of the
Norwegian Parliament and Nor-
wegian delegate to the United
Naiions, spoke informally in
Herrick chapel last evening,
under the auspices of the Inter-i
national Relations club. David,
Hammer, president of IRC,
opened the question, and cm,
swer session by introducing Dn,
Hambro, mentioning his long ex-‘
perience with League of Na-
tions.

The first question dealt with
the importance of the veto in
the U. N. He tell that the
veto is relatively unimportant
in the specialized agencies, for
many such agencies operated
with great success in the
League, where every member,"
however unimportant, had a
veto. The problem essentially isl
the abuse of the veto, which‘
arises from other causes, Con-
sldering the question of improve-
ment of the U. N., he felt that
an evolutionary approach is
besl.

The basic problem of the U.
N., he felt, is the election of
nations, rather than men, to
positions. As a result, inferior
men are often found in major

‘ individuals by

 

posts. This has hampered the
Secretariat in particular.

in international justice was dis-,
cussed at some length. A basic
lack in U. N. structure, he felt,
is the lack of an International
Criminal Court. Such a court,
would deal with injusticse against
states. It was
proposed and nearly adopted by
the League in 1935, when is
was suddenly discovered that
the presence .of Hitler Germany,,
recognized by the world, made
the existence of such a court
absurd.

can do anything i Want to."

Accidental Beneﬁts
When he finally reached the,
question at hand,- Johnsonr,
Smith said that basic industries
should be ‘iun as a benefit to
the community and that service
is rendered only accidentally unv
der private ownership. He stated,
that socialists believe that pro-
viding of full-employment is the
state’s business.
in quite definite tones he al-
so said that democratic socialism,
is an cffecfive barrier to com-
munism rather than a step lead!
ing to communism as‘ many peoﬁ
plc believe. ,
First speaker for the negativei
was Scott, who, after singing a‘
little dili'y with Wright to John-
son-Smith, said that establish
ment of a public ownership sys-
tem would destroy lhc social,
political and economic frecdoml
of individuals.
Day, second speaker for, the,
affirmative, and c scanty 235—,
pounder (according to his teams
mate) said that the two of them
were ”but shadows of our form-
ci~ selves” after 10 years of ca-
tioning. ,
Issue Not Clear Cut
Speaking as a Liberal, Day

said was the issue wasn’t so clear-

cut bciwccn capitalism and pro-
needed to point out how private
enterprise is
public enterprise in the United
Siaics as well as in England
givmg as examples the public
school system, the TVA, and the
atomic energy commission.

After another duet, this one
honoring Day, Wright for the
negative said that public own—
ership would ‘ entail a vast
amount of extra bureaucracy
with inefficiency the result. He
said that the profit motive of a
capitalistic system leads to con-
stant improvement and that the
small stockholders rather than a
few men own giant corporations.

In the first rebuttal speech
Scott said that under socialism
there is no system of checks
and balances, that the next
general election in England
would necessitate the choice of
en undemocratic one-party or a
two—party system which 'wouid
result in chaos under socialism
when one group ‘repiaced anoth
er,

Election at Three E’s

“My opponent must have
dreamt up those remarks about
the next general election in
England at the Three Elms,"

Tearing down the value of the

supplemented by l

in his rebuttal speech: (1) that
jihc crops wai-e plowed under by
who government and not private
‘enterprise during the depres-
,sion.

1 (2) That we now have meas-
ures such as unemployment
loompensacion to cut down the
,disastrous effects of depression
,and (a) that inheritance taxes
lprevent 'continualion of control
lby a few families in private in-
,dustry.

, More Song Willi winds

i Returning the compliment, the
two Oxford student sang a
iduet' for their opponents before
,Day’s final speech in which he
,said that the bureaucracy of
,the United States made it neces-
sary for him to have eight dire
ici-cni pieces of paper to travel
130 miles on a railroad here but

llle’d only need one in England!

He said that freedom had not
,been curtailed in England but
that supervision of the lust for
power and money was beneficial
to the public,

After a short question period
,Mrn R. Homci Norton (history),
,chaiiman of the debate, called
ifor an informal audience vote
on the resolution which the
lnegaiive side won. ,

l A reception in Loose hall

‘loungc followed the program.

 

Sc arlet ’ana Black

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Editor . Fraser Bsucyi
Business Manager 7130b Green

-Miss Evelyn Boyd’s home-baked

WSSF To Offer
Cakes, Cu’rless \/ '
Days In Auction

An extra day and a half of
Christmas vacation without $5
cuts is one of the many items,
offered for Sale at the WSSF
auction dance tonight at 3:30,,
in the women’s gmy.

As a finale to the wssr;
drive, auctioneer Ed Kallish
will also put on the block a
fried chicken dinner, with the}
Marshon de Poisters, one of

 

cakes, French translations for a
week by Miss Odette de le

 

Associate Editor

Y.W.C.A. will save Tea

in order to promote better re»
lations between the faculty and
students, the Y. W. c. A. is
sponsoring a tea for women
members of the faculty, faculty
wives, and women students
Loose drawing room, on Sun-
day, Dec. 4, from 3:30 to 5 p. m.
The Y. w. c. A. women stu-
dents are ~nvited.

snowfall.
“This is definitely not an all-
date affair," said Doug Perch
son, wssr chairman.
All faculty members are in-
vited. Those students who win
faculty services may either pay

Steve Irvmgcmsc, and a ride in Mrs. Velma in cash or leave a pledge with

iT‘he problem of the individual Circulation Mgr. 7A1 Gordon's. Hiser’s sleigh atter the first the committee.

i

803 5th Avenue

l
I.
l

CLAIRE’S CLEANERS

“FOR, THOSE WHO CA‘RE”

TAILORING AND REPAIRING

in‘

Basses Will Take Men
To Iowa State Game l/
i December 5 a group of Grins
,neil men will travel to Ames
ifor the Grinnell—Iowa State col-
Elege basketball game. Sponsored
by the Council of House Presi-
idents, the trip will cost $1.25 for
,the game and approximately
$2.40 for round trip transports
lion.

Chartered buses for the trip
will leave Cowlcs at 5 p. m.
the night of the game.

The C of HP reports that all
information blanks filled out by
those planning to take the speci-
3! Chicago train at Christmas
must be in Dean Duke’s office
by tomorrow morning.

 

Phone 666

 

