College News, 1922-03-28, Vol. 08, No. 19

              *
Copyright, 1922, by The College News
ege
Volume VIII.   No. 19.
BRYN MAWR, PA., TUESDAY, MARCH 28,  1922
Price 10 Cents
CLARK STUDENTS FIGHT FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM;
RESENT INTERRUPTION OF SCOTT NEARING SPEECH;
- PRESIDENT AND AUTHORITIES DEFEND THEIR STAND
Statement Framed Advocating Free Thought And Protesting Against
.   '                             Charge Of Bolshevism                     V
STUDENT MEASURES UPHELD BY PART OF FACULTY
(By John Rothschild, Secretary, National'
Student Forum.)
Worcester, Mass., March 24, 1922.�At
Clark University, in this city, there is a
revolt of the student body against the
college administration founded upon an
alleged infringement of academic freedom.
On the evening of March 14 Dr. Scott
Nearing spoke under the auspices of a stu-
dent organization known as the Clark Lib-
eral Club, his subject being "Control of
Public Opinion." Dr. Harry E. Bapies,
professor of history of thought and cul-
ture, presided. The meeting had been ad-
vertised throughout- Worcester, and an
audience of 200 students, professors, and
townspeople�each having paid twenty-five
cents to hear the_ speaker�crowded the
assembly hall.
Dr. Nearing's address had been in prog-
ress an hour and three-quarters, when Dr
W. W. Atwood, President of Clark, en-
tered the hall. Within five minutes there-
after, he rose, crossed over to Ross Fraser.
'22, President of the Liberal Quo, and
ordered Mr. Fraser to "stop him," to "tell
him to stop.'^ Mr. Fraser went \+ the
platform and spoke to Dr. Nearing, who
immediately stopped his address. Mean-
while Dr. Atwood had stepped to the plat-
form. Facing the audience he declared the
meeting dismissed. Amazement held the
audience motionless. Dr. Atwood repeated
in an angry manner several times "This
meeting is dismissed!" The bulk of the
audience still remaining in the hall Dr.
Atwood. ordered the janitor to extinguish
the lights, and intimated that the police
might be summoned.
As soon as they had recovered suffici-
ently from their amazement the students
who had arranged the meeting, accom-
panied by Dr. Nearing and followed by
part of the audience, led the way out of
the hall to a nearby fraternity house, where
the lecturer finished his Address.
Dr. Atwood's sudden action came as a
great shock to the students. The meeting
had been scheduled since December; Dr.
Atwood had assigned the hall in which it
was to be held and had granted the priv-
ilege of charging admission; he had made
a disparaging remark concerning the
speaker at the time of assigning the hall,
� which evidenced the f act-that he was a<i
quainted with Dr. Nearing's philosophy.
Later, in accounting far his action, Dr. At-
wood said to the reporters, "I closed the
meeting because there were so many of our
undergraduates present I naturally would
feel a responsibility for their hearing
further statements such as were being
made by the speaker."
' Dr. Nearing's address was an attempt
to show that the dominant interests in
any society, in order to protect themselves,
get control of the opinion-creating forces�
the press, the pulpit, and the schools. The
authorities referred to by him were Bryce's
"American Commonwealth," part five, and
Veblen's 'Theory of the Leisure Class."]
Clark students are chuckling over the fact
that Thorsten VeWen is Dr. Atwood's
brother-in-law, and has been invited by the
latter to lecture at the university.
In commenting on the affair from the
student point of view, Ross Fraser said,
"Students and faculty alike resent the atti-
tude of President Atwoo*d at the meeting
last night. Nothing could better illustrate
and prove the argument of the lecturer.
We feel that Dr. Atwood has violated the
essential spirit of Clark, which has always
been exemplified in freedom of speech.
Students Summon  President
By Wednesday morning the excitement
of the meeting had spread throughout the
student body, and the local newspapers
were whetting tha interest of the public.
At the instigation of three of the students
�not members of the Liberal Club�the
president of the student body called a
meeting to discuss the affair. .The men
who precipitated this action were F. Lovell
'Bixby, '22,- President of. the Musical Clubs,
Warren Hume, President of the Senior
Class and Amateur Boxing Champion of
New England, and Stewart M. Pratt, '22,
manager of the baseball team. When ques-
tione<L,as to the basis of their procedure,
Pratt said: "President Atwood's action
appeared to us as a direct thrust at the
intellectual freedom which makes Clark a
live place, and at a tradition �f^vhich we
are  all  proud."
With the exception of ten students, who
refrained from voting, the meeting of the
student body was in favor of asking Presi-
dent Atwood to address the students in
explanation "of- the views of the adminis-
tration regarding the freedom of thought
and "its expression to be allowed in Clark
University under said administration." The
treatment of the ten students, conspicuous
by their neutrality, may be cited as char-
acteristic of the spirit in which Gark stu-
dents are handling their side of the con-
troversy.    Some of the over-zealous were
(Continued on page 2)
RED SWIMMERS WIN OUT IN
FINAL MEET ON FRIDAY
E.  Anderson,   22,  Wins  Individual
Cup; M. Mutch, '25, Places Second
Leaping ahead in the relay race and
winning first in both 68-foot and 136-foot
front swims, the Freshmen, with a total
score of 33.5 points, outstripped the other
classes in the swimming meet on Friday
last, 1922 and 1924 tied for second place
with 16.5 points.
The individual cup was won by E. An-
derson, '22, who equalled her own record
made last year in the 136-foot back swim,
won the 68-foot back swim, and placed
third in the 68-foot front swim. M. Mutch,
'25, winning both the 68- foot and 136-foot
front swims placed second.
Making 61 seconds in the relay race,
1925 broke the record of 62.1 seconds held
by 1921 last year. This was the only
record broken at this years meet. H. Rice,
'23, won first place in plunge for distance,
the other three places went to' 1925.
Each competitor in diving offered six
dives, which were judged by Mr. Bishop,
of Haverford College. Mr. Bishop
awarded  first place -to N. Fitzgerald,   '23.
Places made in the different events were:
(Continued on paft 3)
BESS PERSON '24, WINS CUP
IN FENCING MEET TUESDAY
University of Pennsylvania Awarded
Second Place           �
J. YEATMAN 22, RANKS THIRD
First and third places were won by B.
Pierson, '24, and J. Yeatman, '22, for Bryn
Mawr in the fencing meet for individual
championship held in. the gymnasium last
Tuesday evening with the University of
Pennsylvania. The jneety which was held
under the auspices of the American Fen-
cers League of America, was conducted
formally Jand the evening dress of the
judges, members of the league, gave a
unique note to the gymnasium.
Mr. Terroni, fencing master, opened the
meet by speaking of fencing in this country
and explaining the system of the bouts.
The American Fencers' League was first
organized at the end of the last century,
he said. Usually competitions can only be
held among members, but when a cup was
offered to women' an exception was made.
The first intercollegiate bout was held at
the University of Pennsylvania, last year,
when Bryn Mawr was defeated. This year
two more prizes were added, a foil and a
pair of fencing gloves.
Seventeen entiles, altogether, were
made, eleven from Bryn Mawr and six
from the University. These were divided
into three groups who bouted among them-
selves to determine the two winners each,
who then competed for the final champion-
ship. The Bryn Mawr entries were? A.
Nicoll, J. Yeatman, B. Barber, M. Speer,
M. Conolly, H. Adams, B. Pierson, I. Cole-
man, M. Voorhees, P. Smith and K. Starr.
As the result of the preliminaries, three
competitor^ from each side entered the
finals. Of these B. Pierson and Miss Har-
very tied for the first place, which, how-
ever, Miss Pierson won on account of her
superior form. She was awarded the cup.
Miss Harvey then took second place.and
the foil, while J. Yeatman won third place
and the gloves.
VARSITY   AGAIN   VICTORIOUS;
SCORES 52-6 OVER ADELPHI
Brooklyn Players Put Up Quick Game
In Spite of Overwhelming Defeat
Speedy playing through on both sides
characterized the basket ball game on Sat-
urday between Adelphi and Bryn Mawr,
which ended in a score of 52-6 in favor
of Bryn Mawr.
Adelphi's passing was unusually quick
and sure, their shooting being their weak-
est point. Varsity played its usual game,
invariably getting the jump and showing
very pretty team work. Nicoll made sev-
eral spectacular baskets; Remak's throwing
was not sure in the first half hut visibly
improved in the Second. Martin and Pa-
lache worked together increasingly well;
Bliss and Lewitz as guards were kept busy
a great deal of the time; Lewitz deserves
special mention for some very difficult
catches.
,           (Continued on P�fe 5)      '* '
FRESHMAN   COMPETITION
ANNOUNCEMENT
The News takes great pleasure in an-
nouncing that Margaret Stewardson, '25,
has been elected to the Editorial Board.
Miss Stewardson is the first Freshman to
make the Board.
MISS AMY LOWELL SPEAKS
INFORMALLY AT DEANERY
Earlier Lecture on Chinese Poetry
Calls Miss Lowell to Philadelphia
READS MANY SELECTIONS
Miss Amy Lowell, one of the best known
poets of America, spoke informally to a
large group of students in the deanery,
last Thursday evening, after dining with
President Thomas. The News Board, thw
Lantern Board, the ^English Club, and
many individual undergraduates and grad-
uates  were present  to hear her.
Miss Lowell did not give a set talk upon
any given topic. She answered a good
many questions on literary subjects, and
afterwards read several selections from
her poems.
In answer to thc.question, "Who in your
opinion are the besf contemporary- Amer-
ican poets?" Miss Lowell replied promptly:
"Carl Sandberg, Robinson, Robert Frost
and Vachel Lindsay; while E^oa St. Vin-
cent Millay hovers upon the euge of the
highest rank. Sara Teasedale, William
Rose Benet and Hilda Conklin are good
examples of the second rank."
'TT>ets in England are aiming at an en-
tirely different goal from that of American
poets," Miss Lowell went on, "they are
seeking perfection in traditional forms.
They are trying to do consummately what
has been done before, trying to foster an
old tradition. In America, on the other
hand, poets are putting originality before
everything. * Except that they use nomi-
nally the same language, their work is no
more like what is being produced in Eng-
land than Spanish poetry is like Chinese.
More English poe.ts write fairly good
poetry than Americans do, .but our best
are, I think, much better work than theirs.
For the most part Englishmen write better
than Americans, but in my opinion, no
Englishman is at present producing 'any-
thing which surpasses the work of our
best  American poets."
Before reading "Lilacs" at the audience's
request, Miss Lowell told an anecdote con-
cerning the line in the poem, "The oriole's
weak soft song." She had, she'declared,
received a number of letters after tvery
occasion on which she read this poem from
persons who declared that the oriole is
noted for its loud song. As she had heard
the orioles singing softly herself, however,
she refused to change the line in the poem.
Later she found that at a certain season
the oriole does have a soft note.
Other poems which she fead were: 'The
Cross  Roads," "Patterns," and a number
of   short   poems   from   her  new   book  of
Chinese translations, "Fir Flower Tablets."
Give* Afternoon   Lecture in Town
Miss Lowell lectured in the afternoon
at the Bellevue-Stratford under the aus-
pices of the Bryn Mawr �liinese Scholar-
ship Committee.
Her only qualifications �yere, she said,
that she had lived for four years with the
idea of Chinese poetry in her mind and
that the one hundred and fifty poems in
Fir Flower Tablet were the result of these
four years.
Fir Flower Tablets was written, Miss
Lowell explained in a very unique, way.
Mrs. Florence Aysceregh, of the Royal
Asiatic Society, with whom she worked,
would .send her a copy of a Chinese poem
with as many translations as possible for
each character, an analysis of the charac-
ters, the story of all the allusions and a
rough paraphrase Miss Lowell, who
knows no Chinese, would turn the poem
into English and send it back to Mrs.
Aysceregh, who would translate it back
(Continued on pafe 5)