October 9, 1924

Vassar debated Cambridge on the question “Resolved, that Modern Democracy Is not Compatible with Personal Liberty.” The judges awarded the debate to Cambridge, with Richard Austen Butler and his colleagues upholding the affirmative. The audience voted, however, two to one in favor of the negative. Members of Vassar’s team were Mary Virginia Heinlein ’25, Ruth Driver ’26 and Winifred Comstock ’25.

In 1954, British Chancellor of the Exchequer “Rab” Butler recalled: “We found the earnest, logical Yankees easy to flummox, except for the Vassar girls, who ran circles round us.”

—TIME