Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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23 ship, they saw public opinion suppressed; it might be efficient, but whither did it lead? The voice of the people was sacred, and should not be £)tifled: Vox populi vox Dei. Public Opinion then expressed itself in effecting the defeat of the Motion. Feb. 15. Hat Debate. Each member made one or more im- promptu speeches . Among the subjects were these: — Some people live on what others throw away. Is Co-education a good thing? Bermuda should have Votes for Women. Schoolboys talk too much. Would you like to be an Eskimo? Bermuda should eat more greens. Sal(tus should have a school parrot. Would you rather live now or in 2,040? OFFICERS FOR THE YEAR 1939 40. President: Mr. J. H. Kerry. Secretary: F. D. Duffey. Committee: J. F. Motyer, j. Adams, H. P. Malloy, T. N. Fall, and F. D. Duffey (ex-officio.)

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22 I could probably teach the moderns a thing or two about make-up. Even slang was not without its value: it usually responded to th-e need to express some new idea; what was slang to-day would be accepted as good English to-morrow. However, the spirit of great grandmother Prim and great grand- father Proper descended upon the House to carry the Motion. Feb. 2. Debate on the Motion, ' That Public Opinion is a snare and a delusion. Proposer: — F. D. Duffoy. Opposer: — J, F. Motyer. Third: — H. A. Leseur. Fourth: — J. Adams. Public opinion wasi not always wrong, but it was • unpredictable, maintained the Proposer. Furthermore, mass opinion was often mis- leading; statesmen knew best because they had a more expert and in- formed view of public affairs; yet public opinion sometimes required that they should subordinate their own more enlightened convictions to a public opinion which might have been evoked by £iome unscrupul- ous politician or others using platform, Press, radio and the whisper- ing gallery to play cleverly on mass emotion from ulterior motives. The ordinary man usually took his opinions ready-made; ho had his own job to do, and hadn ' t the time to go fully into the whys and where- fores of the case; often when he felt most strongly, he was feeling through the mind of somebody else, though he might delude himself in believing that it wjas his own opinion. The Opposers viewed the Motion as an insidious attack upon rights and liberties which were enshrined in Magna Carta and in the hearts of all Englishmen. It concerned certain fun damentals upon which the whole structure of democratic government rested, upon the right of the people to govern themselves through their freely elected repre£)entatives. It was true that those representatives would do r ome of the people ' s thinking for them, but public opinion would ensure that in its broad outlines that thinking would follow the direction de- sired; public opinion was dynamic, and when the chosen representa- tive ceased to represent it, then public opinion would bring that fact home to him. If it was to be fair, government must be guided by public opinion; otherwise it might mean government by the few in the inter- est of the few. Under the opposiite form of government, the dictator-

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Keep Cool and Comfortable fit The PHOENIX IiUNCHEONETTE FOR SCHOOL OPENING USE AN INK-D-CATOR FOUNTAIN PEN at 3 - or INK-O-GRAPH SOLD ONLY BY THE PHOENIX AND ANNEX The Stwcs of Friendly Service