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SIGHT AND SOUND *rUoNM*m NEW YORK, May 5.— It was only a few months back or so that Edward R. Murrow stirred up something of a noisy ruckus throughout the country with a radio documentary called "The Business of Sex," in which he examined, and commented upon, the role that profes-s i o n a 1 prostitution plays in Big Business. It would be altogether out of place to suggest that Mr. Murrow has now sought atonement and expiation for en gaging in such sordid activities. But when the other night, via CBS-Radio, he brought us another radio documentary titled "The Educated Woman," in which he examined, and commented upon, the role played by college-educated and college-trained ladies, the conclusion was inescapable that Mr. Murrow was showing us the other side of the same com. "Age cannot wither, nor custom stale thy infinite variety," sang the Bard, in reference to a celebrated member of the sex. James Thurber put it into more succint terms. He just called it "The War Between Men and Women." AAA Not that Mr. Murrow, a famous war correspondent himself, took any inflexible position—to use a currently popular phrase — in his examination of "The Educated Woman." What he did, indeed, was to introduce a number of experts and authori- ties deemed highly qualified in this field to speak of what they have learned through their own experiences. College presidents such as Dr. Millicent Mcintosh of Barnard, Dr. Harry Gideonse of Brooklyn College, Dr. Harold Taylor of Sarah Lawrence, Mother OByrne of Manhattan. The Dean of Faculties at Indiana University, Eunice Roberts; poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish; psychoanalyst Sara Sheiner; housewife Mrs. Jackie Robinson; and tow-ward the end, even a college graduate, the former Janet Brewster, Mount Holyoke, 53. Who, it turned out, also happens to be Mrs. Edward R. Murrow. A A A But if you think all the combined experience, all the sagacity and perception, of all these people came up with any definitive answers on what the educated woman is, or what she should be, or even what she should be educated for, the answer is that woman herself, educated or not, seems to be still as much of a riddle, as much of a puzzlement, and as bewildering, erratic, whimsical, contradictory, unpredictable and wholly baffling as she ever was. "This college," said Dr. Richard Gettel of Mount Holyoke, "is in the enviable but responsible position of being able to be highly selective in its admissions. It need not accept the mediocre. It wants to accept, regardless of financial resources, only those applicants who have real intellectual capacities, who show promise of further growth, and who evince the desire to give the most and gain the most from their Mount Holyoke experience." So a few moments later along comes Mrs. Murrow, a graduate of this same noble institution, saying, "Oh, I went there for a very frivolous reason. I was going to a football game at Amherst on a certain beautiful autumn afternoon, and as I drove through South Hadley I saw the girls coming from their classes ... I just thought this was a heavenly spot, this is where Id like to go." Mrs. Murrow did admit, in all fairness, that Mount Holyoke opened new avenues to her, made it possible for her to learn more about the world, made her want to know 1 people. It was a bit startling, however, to find those two comments about the same womans college within the space of only a few moments. AAA Then there was the story told by the Dean of Faculties at Indiana on why girls go to college out her way. "The freshman girl came into the Dean of Women at the end #f just about the second week of school," she said, "and told the Dean she wanted to withdraw from the school. And the Dean of Women said, Why do you want to withdraw? You havent been here long enough to know whether youre getting what you want out of school. " Yes she had, replied the girl. So the Dean of Women said, What did you come here for? And the girl said, Well, I came here to be went with, and I aint been yet. " There were a number of people on Mr. Murrows radio program who agreed that perhaps that was one of the prime purposes of any girl going to college.
