Maidens Versus Maids

Despite the feeling of superiority which each college publications has toward all others, there is a common tie binding them together. All have artistic hopes and financial worries, and all consider themselves to be a race apart from the collegiate horde.

It is, therefore, with the deepest regret that we learn of the suspension of the Smith "Tatler" because of an article printed in its October issue which offended the college maids and waitresses. We do not feel that a college should have the power to crack down on a publication for any reason less serious than arson or murder.

Although its title "Maids We Have Known and Loved" was harmless enough, it would be futile to defend the article. According to its author's own statement in "Scan," the Smith newspaper, it is definitely in poor taste. The maids were certainly justified in protesting. But the logic of the college in considering the magazine as "an official Smith publication," and on that ground ordering its suspension until a new board is elected, seems to us to be faulty.

In the first place, the banning of the magazine cannot possibly make the maids feel any more friendly toward the girls. If an undergraduate publication is going to be considered "official" at all, it is in the status of official student representative, not administration mouthpiece. Banning by the college will not make maids think that the girls have changed their ideas.

However, we do not feel that publications should be considered as "official" in any sense of the term. The author, the board of editors, and the editor-in-chief should be responsible for what goes in each article, not the entire student body. All three were at fault for failing to see the potential dynamite that lurked in the seeming innocence of the words. When the dynamite exploded it was up to them to make amends as best they could. We suspect that the apologies which they rendered, honestly and sincerely, must have helped the situation more than any action by the administrative authorities could have.

The action of the college presents the possibility of similar suspensions whenever a Smith paper or magazine prints some article that the administration does not like. A college publication which is not free to criticize its institution is practically useless. It is unfortunate that no other Smith editors took up the cudgel on behalf of their unfortunate sister, for by failing to do so they were contributing to their own nullification.