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Campus Mirror Published During the College Year by the Students of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia VOL. XVII FEBRUARY. 1941 No. 5 An American Folk Story The story of the incident when the fa ther of little George Washington de manded of the child to know who had hacked his valuable cherry tree and re ceived a reply which could not have been the child’s first thought—this story has become a part of American folk litera ture with epic worth, because it charac terizes an American hero, and is not a thing to jest about, nor a story to be distorted in the telling, as it often is. The child’s simply worded reply, “Fa ther, I cannot tell a lie,” is correctly- quoted, but rarely do we hear any hint of the thought which must have brought out that reply; that is. the pos sibility of denying the truth and of get ting off without any consequences of what he had done. The forgiveness of his father is seldom referred to any more, and is less important than the boy’s crit ical moment of weighing what he might do weakly against what he did do strongly. Some of us can say very glibly on in consequential occasions, “I cannot tell a lie”, and it may seem amusing. We, in many cases, become prone to say and to hear such expressions so lightly that the absolute truth in them escapes us, and they become easy sayings. Yet on other occasion^ when we are most serious, when we want to be most careful, and when we want to arrive at a fully satis factory conclusion, those little sayings that we employ every day, do not occur to us; for at such a time, we have cast them aside as useless. Suppose each of us should say to our selves either on light or serious occasions. “Whatever happens, I cannot lie to my self. I may be able to deceive others who can see only what I show them, but in evitably I must know deep inside of me that I am lying to myself.” It is infinite ly more important that we be true to ourselves first; then there is les- pos sibility that others will be deceived by our actions. In psychology we learn An Interview With Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, who began his administrative work as President of Morehouse College, July 1, 1940, sub mitted to an interview by representa tives of the Campus Mirror staff. Feb ruary 11. Very early the interview-ers learned that here was a man who took the interviewing situation for what it really meant. “Interview? Hence,” said he, “you ask me the questions, for it is I who am sup posed to be interviewed.” This was dis concerting to the students at first, but they eventually realized that he was try ing to help them to develop the inter viewers’ technique. From this point, questions and answers flowed rather free ly. cordially, and pleasantly. Dr. Mays completed his high school work at State College, South Carolina; his college work at Bates College in Ma ine, 1920: in 1925 he received the A.M. degree at the University of Chi cago; and in 1935. received his Ph.D. degree from the same university. The years between his College degree and his Doctor's degree are seasoned with many experiences, activities, and literary works. He was a higher Mathematics teacher at Morehouse Colege from 1921- 1924; Professor at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg. South Carolina. 1925-1926; social worker from 1926- 1928, serving as Executive Secretary of the Tampa Urban League. He has done (Continued on Page 3) about the schizophrenic, who has a split personality, and of some other psychotics who have delusions of one sort or anoth er. Is it not a dangerous road to travel, from a mental, if not from a moral view point, to act thus in one situation and differently in another, if only one or neither is the true self? It would be an interesting experiment some time for any one in any status of life—high or low—just to try George V ashington s method by stopping when on the verge of saying. "I cannot tell a lie to think, to consider seriously, every phase of his life; then to try to an swer these questions: "Am 1 lying to myself? Do I lie to myself, ever?”