University of Virginia Library

Changing Hands Again

Every year at this time a new staff
takes over The Cavalier Daily. It has been
customary through the years for the new
editor to devote his first editorial to some
sort of outline of his concept of his position
and of The Cavalier Daily in general,
and of his intentions as chief policy-maker
for the official "organ" of the University
of Virginia. We shall continue this practice
today, but we hardly know where to begin.

Frankly, it is with a great deal of awe
for the position that we assume the editorship.
In a time of so much change and upheaval,
of so much questioning and examination
of the established, both locally
and nationally, the average "man on the
street" cannot help but become somewhat
bewildered by it all as each new day seems
to produce new issues. Considering the
myriad of issues, ranging from doormen at
fraternity parties to the legalization of marijuana
to poverty and crime in cities, we would
not dare to present ourselves as anything
of an expert on most of them. In fact, we
are probably relatively ignorant of some of
them. And yet we must write intelligently
and intuitively and persuasively on these
issues daily.

Because we cannot hope to be an expert
on the majority of matters which will confront
us, both local and national, we invite
and encourage everyone who feels that on
some occasion we have written in relative
ignorance, or, more importantly, everyone
who holds opinions counter to our own, to
offer his point of view in person for our
benefit or in the form of letters to the
editor, which benefit the whole readership.
We shall receive such opinions and/or
criticism with an open mind, but not without
a certain conviction of our own feelings.
In short, we want to know as many sides
as possible of any issue we consider, and
will doubtless have to depend upon our
readers for some of those sides.

In spite of our realization of the limitations
of our knowledge of a given
issue, we shall never hesitate to speak out
as vociferously as we feel is necessary on
the basis of what knowledge we do have
of the issue. We will doubtless make mistakes
as a result of too much haste, and for
these we apologize now. But, as a high-ranking
University official once wrote to
one of our predecessors, "A college paper
ought to be critical, if not querulous and
I would not change ours. I am perfectly
willing to endure a few attacks for the
sake of a free and uncensored paper that
learns by doing, and by trial and error, and
gradually achieves responsibility." We can
hope for no more than to learn, as he says,
by doing, and in the course of our tenure, to
achieve responsibility.

The sentiments expressed by that official
are closely akin to those voiced by Mr.
Jefferson when first he uttered what is now
the well-worn "For here we are not afraid
to follow the truth wherever it may lead
us." We shall pursue the truth with all our
might, trusting that reason is indeed left
free to combat that error we are thus
not afraid to tolerate.

As a final word to those who wonder
whether we will be "conservative" or
"liberal," we can find no better words
to express our position than those used
at this time last year by Charles Calhoun
in his first editorial: "We would pinpoint
our views only by saying that we find
extremists of both the Left and the Right
equally amusing. Rather than have The
Cavalier Daily represent any one group-whether
it be the elusive Establishment or
some exotic radical fringe-we prefer to see
the paper carry on a dialogue among all
points of student and faculty and administrative
view." This is the goal we shall
try to attain.