College News, 1929-05-01, Vol. 15, No. 21

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ews
VOL. XV, NO. 21
BRYN MAWR (AND WAYNE), pa., WEDNESDAY, MAY.l, 1929
PRICE.   10 CENTS
College of Future
Medieval    Delusion    Shattered,     But
Knowledge Still in-
Small  Units.
In Chapel on Frida^ morning, April
26, Hornell Hart spoke on "The Col-
lege of the Future." The impact of
scientific discoveries has shattered
most of the medieval institutions and
they are being reconstructed along the
modern scientific lines. Copernicus
first began objective study, and his
work resulted in the breaking down
of the old religious convictions and a
revolution of our attitude tftward the
universe. Similarly, the discovery of
electricity and of the new mechanical
appliances has" not only thrown over
the old system of economics, but has
wiped out the patriarchal family with
its ruling man. Corresponding revo-
lutions may be cited in one field after
another.
The college of today is one of the
few. remaining "outposts of medieval-
ism," and it cannot resist the scien-
tific impact. Already the delusion
that we hold the fulneSs of knowledge
is being shattered, and the open -atti-
tude of the business man toward
progress is being_ carried over into
education. Already the surge of scien-
tific learning is felt in the kindergarten,
lower and secondary schools.
What is the matter with the college
as it is? An institution which pro-
duces blase students is certainly not
entirely healthy, and there are cer-
tainly a number of blase students at
Bryn Mawr. Let us approach this
question by looking into the purposes
of college. There is, first, the tradi-
tional purpose of passing on accumu-
lated knowledge to future generations,
and it is the overemphasis of this aim
which produces the boredom of the
student. Then there is the functional
purpose of the college, and this falls
under three heads. The college should
introduce' students to the fun of the
intellectual game, to the thrill of .play-
ing with concepts. Next the college
should teach the art of comradeship,
life together, the integration of pur-
pose necessary for progress. Lastly,
college should be a means of mobil-
izing the emotional forces of the stu-
dent' and developing her ultimate ca-
pacities.
The college at present is run on
traditional lines. Knowledge is parti-
tioned off in little separate boxes, and
we swallow our package and regurgi-
tate it for examinations. But this, sys-
tem is proving impracticable, and
knowledge is refusing to be shut in
separate compartments. Take the
case of anthropology, where the refer-
ence books are in use for history,
biology, archaeology�in fact, for most
courses. We are trying to face this
overlapping of fields by the introduc-
tion of allied subjects.
There are attempts being made to
go at the college problem from a
functional point of view. ' Antioch
College, by means of the co-operative
system, is trying to link realities with
the curriculum. Both Bryn Mawr
and Swarthmore are experimenting
with honors work, an effort to get
at fundamentals through individual
exploration. A whole-hearted attack on
the college problem from a functional
point of view should result in a con-
ception of all college courses as rooms
from   the   central   corridor   leadings to
creased understanding of life.
Sign Promptly
Dr. Wagoner and Miss Petts
have announced that the spring
physical examinations this year
will be reduced to an examina-
tion of seniors and freshmen.
Dr. Wagoner will give ten-min-
ute interviews to seniors be--
tween May 6 and 10 in the In-
firmary- Miss Petts will give
the physical examinations to
freshmeli. Appointment slips
will be posted this week in
Taylor Hall on the bulletin
board opposite Room F.
�
Lecture Postponed
Owing to unforeseen circum-
stances, Dr. James H. Breasted
has had to postpone his lecture,
announced for April 26, to May
7. The fourth lecture will be
given on May 14. �    ,
Dr. Schenck Given Ovation;
Receives Diploma for Work
On Monday afternoon, April 29, the
French Club entertained at tea in
honor of Dr. Eunice Morgan Schenck,
who has been made an "officier d'Acad-
emic" The tea was followed by the
ceremony of presenting the diploma
and a medal, which was given to Dr.
Schenck by the members of the French
Club.
Mile. Parde was the, first to speak
and welcomed the French consul of
Philadelphia, Mr. Weiller, who was
present in honor of the occasion. She
congratulated Dr. Schenck on the well-
merited acknowledgment she was re-
ceiving for her work in acquainting
the students at Bryn Mawr with the
French language and literature. She
expressed her great pleasure in col-
laborating with such an intelligent and
interested French scholar, and her
pride in the honor paid her friend.
Mile. -Parde was followed by Mr.
Weiller,? who said . he had had the
pleasure of collaborating with Dr.
Schenck frequently, and wished to
voice his gratitude for the great serv-
ice she had rendered France by help-
ing American students to understand
and love his country. He mentioned
the union which sentiment has always
made between the two countries.
When America was young, "France
helped her in her struggle for liberty,
and in the Great War America re-
turned the service in a spirit of love
and friendship. Dr. Schenck is one
of those who are helping to bind
America and France still more closely
together. Then Mr. Weiller presented
to Dr. Schenck the diploma granted
by Monsieur le Ministre d'Instruction
et des Beaux Arts. Mrs. Schenck
pinned the medal, known as "palmes
academique," on, her daughter's dress.
Dr. Schenck responded to her ova-
tion in attributing much of her suc-
cess to the collaboration of her intelli-
gent and devoted colleagues, and ended
with an expression of her great pride
in the honor which  she had received.
Amateur Is Hope
of Future Theatre
Mr. Jones Emphasizes Need of
Simplicity in Stage
Setting.
URGES   MORE   SINCERITY
Bryn Mawr League Meets,
Elects, Reports Progress
In a meeting of the Bryn Mawr
League, held in the Common Room
on Wednesday, a brief survey of the
past year's work was given. Follow-
ing this Dorothea Cross, Constance
Speer and Angelyn Burrows were
nominated for president and the meet-
ing   adjourned   until   Monday.
On Monday, Ruth Biddle read the
president's report, and then turned
over the meeting to Dorothea Cross,
who was elected during the week.
The heads of committees were then
nominated  and elected as  follows:
Sunday service�Constance Speer,
'30. �
Social  service�Mary  Hulse,  '30.
Secretary-Treasurer�Josephine Gra-
ton, '32.
Bates   House�Eleanor  Smith,  '30.
Summer School�Angelyn Burrows,
�31.
It was also announced that the two
undergraduates who have been chosen
to come to Summer School this year
are Dorothea Cross. '30. and Hilda
Thomas. '31.
Bryn Mawr League Report
(Contributed by, Ruth Biddle, '29.)
It is indeed difficult to realize that a
whole year has elapsed since the titne-
honoured institution of C. A. was cast
into outer darkness., We all foynd it sim-
ple last spring, as we rushed around
with questionnaires interviewing every-
one, to say, "C. A. has served its term,
CONTINUED  ON  TUB THIBO  PAGE
"Sharpen your image" was the admo-
nition   gjyeti   by   Mr.   Robert   Edmunds
Jones   in   his  lecture  Tuesday  evening,
April 23,  in the Music  Room of Good-
hart  Hall.                                       .   .    V
Mr. Jones began his lecture by telling
of art in general. The hardest thing
about any profession is the fact> that it
is almost an impossibility for an older
person to tell anything to a younger
person, as everyone has to carve out his
own destiny. The important thing con-
sists in finding out what you want to do
and then do just that and nothing else.
"Sharpen .your image." and this sharp
picture Of \0%t you 'want to do will
carry you to what you want.
The professional theatre, Mr. Jones
said, is rotten with incompetence and is
essentially a second-rate thing. The
sheer waste of energy and talent is "un-
believable; but there is an unparalleled
opportunity to learn if one is teachable.
| The theatre unions are fascinating rep-
licas of the "medieval guilds. No mat-
ter how temperamental a person may
be, the show is "put out" at the exact
moment it is expected to go; there is
never  any  delay.
The experience of fifteen years in the
theatre has brought the fact home to
Mr. Jones that it is simplicity, which
counts above all else. Various examples
of this simplicity in scenery we^e shown,
as, for instance,'in Macbeth, where Lady
Macbeth enters with a single taper iii
her hand, the only scenery on the
stage at the time. "A single 4apcr
was enough for Shakespeare," Mr. Jones
quoted to us from one of his own articles
on the subject. Shakespeare animates
the scene with his own intense mood.
The candle light throws upon the wall
a walking shadow, and where the lay-
man sees nothing but the candle, Shakes-
peare saw a great revealing image.# This
is one of the most perfect examples of
dramatic imagination in art.
Never be stopped in theatre work by
a lack of money, Mr. Jones warned.
The greater the simplicity, the more
intense the effect. The actors of the
Sea Gull were annoyed because they
were unable to afford an elaborate Rus-
sian setting for their production, but
Mr. Jones witnessed the same play pro-
duced in Paris with the most simple
stage setting and found it far more ef-
fective. Imagination must take the place
of material things.
Mr. Jones was once asked to be a
judge in the choice of a stage design for
Lady Gregory's The Dragon. In all of
the entries he found the most finished
study of the latest Viennese stage craft,
but nothing at all of the Irish folk-
story. One- should always go to the
essentials of the thing at hand. A simi-
lar incident happened to Mr. Jones when
he was designing the set for a medieval
play in which some heraldic lions were
to be used. The public library was
searched for pictures of heraldic lions,
some of which were excellent, but which,
when copied, did not quite satisfy him;
something was obviously wrong. They
lacked what is known as "good theatre."
To remedy the deficiency, Mr. Jones im-
mediately set his imagination in action.
He imagined the lion on the shield *of
Richard Coeur de Lion, the crusaders,
Sir Percival and the mystery of the
Grail, the Song of Roland, Tristram and
Isolde, and countless other things, allow-
ing his fancy to roam among them in
revery. Then he set about to draw a
lion which would have his mood in it.
All art in the theatre should be evoca-
tive; a good actor evokes. It is only a
detail in an elaborate ttHing which calls
uj� the desired image.
Mr. Jones then gave us some idea of
how he himself works. When one is to
design a set one reads the play through
first, very intensely in_order to visualize
CONTINUED ON THE THIBD  PAGE
Athletic Elemtions
The officers s&- the Athletic
Association in/T929-30 will be:
Helen Louise Taylor, '30, presi-
dent; Elizabeth Blanchard, '31,
vice president; Mary Frothing-
ham, '31, treasurer; Gertrude
Woodward, '32, secretary.
'Skills' in Business
Topic of Talk in Chapel
Dr. Gilbreth, Registrar of Katherine
Gibbs Secretarial School and a famous
efficiency expert, spoke in chapel on
Monday morning, April 29, on the ad-
vantages of a secretarial course.
She said that not only is it almost
impossible to approach business and
industry without secretarial training,
but also that there is a definite satis-
faction in the number *f "skills" that
one can acquire'through the co-ordina-
tion of mind and hands.
Industry'and business need college-
'trained women who have had a busi-
ness course, not only to start in execu-
tive jobs, but to begin as workers, so
they will learn the psychology of the
worker and therefore have a complete
experience. The college woman knows
how to spend her leisure. This is a
very valuable asset, and one which
sjie should pas> on. to her fellow-
workers who have had only a profes-
sional training. Of course, there is a
great deal of competition at the be-
ginning, and it often seems that ex-
perience and technique get farther, but
in the end the college-trained mind
goes ahead.                               -     *
Dr. Gilbreth explained that likes and
dislikes are important when one is
entering business and industry. She
classified "skills" in .five divisions:
"skills" in handling material, money,
machines, papers and men. The skill
that one has at the beginning is im-
portant, but few have had much ex-
l>erience \i\ dealing with men and ma-
chines, and these "skills" can be de-
veloped if one is truly interested.
Industry is then a matter of skill
and satisfaction, ana one should always
find new interests. It is Dr. Gil-
breth's belief that women should
marry, and then go into business and
industry for new "skills" and satisfac-
tions.
Aesthetic Movement Is
Discussed by Miss Carey
Debate Is Lost
�   to Swarthmore
Effervescent Wit and Sparkle as
Advertising Is    -       �
Deplored.
MANY     ASPECTS     CITED
In chapel on Wednesday Miss Carey
talked on the origins and characteristics
*)f the aesthetic movement in the decade
from 1880 to 1890. It was as a specific
satire on this fad of aestheticism that
Patience was written and first presented
at the Opera Comique on the third of
April, 1888. Ever since then, Patience
has continued to be popular, probably
because the world is always full of a
succession of fads, and thus the oper-
etta still has a point for its audience.
Oscar Wilde was the leader of this
aesthetic movement, and he and his fol-
lowers published a yellow-bound book
somewhat Wkc^hransition in which James
Joyce put his writings. It is interesting
to note that Henry James was included
among the writers of the volume.
For the origin of the cult which pro-
duced such a fantastic and unbelievable
state of affairs, there is first of all the
Romantic movement in France led by
Gauticr and Vcrlaine. In England, the
Fabian Society in 1822, Bernard Shaw's
plays, and the founding of the Labor
Parties were similar manifestations of a
new desire for the freedom of the indi-
vidual.
Beside these influences, aestheticism
made a great; point of a twist from
Classicism, and followed some of the
concepts of the French School of De-
cadence which led them to aspire: "to
l>e a voice, yet the voice oj a human
son!.'" Curiously enough tin- most di-
rect inspiration of the movement was
Walter Pater, from"" whose writing the
aesthetes gleaned a, paragraph which
seemed to hold all their beliefs and
which especially sai; ,that: "not the fruit
CONTINUED  ON T^HE THIBD   PAGE
Bryn Mawr, by the vote of the audi-
ence, went down to defeat before the
superior debating power of Swarth-
more in the first intercollegiate debate,
which was held in the Music Room of
Goodhart on Thursday evening, April
25. Any attempt to reproduce* the
effervescent wit, sparkle and sprightli-
nfcss of the whole debate would be
miserably futile. We can at best only
summarize the points made by the in-
dividual speakers. The question was,
"Resolved, that the influence of ad-
vertising on the public is deplorable."
Bryn Mawr supported the affirma-
tive and our first speaker was Miss
Ljnn, '29. She discussed the situa-
tion from an economic pomt of view.
She declared that the cost of adver-
tising is borne by the public, that our
standards of judgment are psycho-
logically destroyed, that new and un-
necessary demands for luxuries are
created, that purchasing power will
soon be done away with, and that the
installment plan, the offspring of ad-
vertising, involves the public in huge
debts. Miss Linn's whole. sp�ech was
an excellent synthesis of common
sense and humor.
Mr. Westwood was the first
speaker for the negative, and gave a
long, concrete example of the advan-
tages that advertising'has, both for
the producer and the consumer. With-
out the medium of advertising in
Nebraska, meat is distributed in a
very unsanitary way. With advertis-
ing, however, there is a separation of
producer from consumer. The pro-
ducer can concentrate ou production
rather than distribution, and this
greater degree of specialization in
function makes for a higher degree
of efficiency all around. The_.delivery
of Mr. Westwood's speech was very
clear and  convincing.
The aesthetic and political aspects of-
advertising were then deplored -by
Miss Wise. She alluded to unsightly
billboards, glaring lights, prostitution
of art, and unpleasant advertising over
the radio. She also stressed the point
that the policy of a newspaper is often
entirely determined by its advertisers,
and surely a prejudiced press is not
a good thing Jor any country.
Mr. Ferris declared that advertising
was responsible for the rapid spread of
the valuable radio, as well as the cir-
culation of magazines and newspapers.
He believed that competition makes
for truth in advertising, and upheld
the- fact that education and all kinds
of insurance have been increased
through this medium. New products
are brought before the public eye, and
Mr. Ferris declared that he was
charmed by the beauty of street-car
advertisements. Thus, on the whole,
advertising is a thoroughly laudable
institution.
The moral evils brought about by
advertising were then attacked vigor-
ously by Miss Lambert. She pointed
out that advertising lowers our stand-
ards of accuracy and brings about
self-consciousness and inferiority com-
plexes by calling attention to deformi-
ties and also fosters the white slave
traffic. Furthermore, a great evil is
that of .standardization and commer-
cialization, which is apparent in all
phases of our life; clothes, cosmetics,
CONTINUED ON  THE   KOI'BTH   PAGE
CALENDAR
Friday, May .'>, and Saturday. May 4,
the Glee Club wilj present (.ilbert and
Sullivan's Patience, at 8.20 P. M., ia
Goodhart Hall'.
Saturday. May 4, at �> A M . the French
Language* Examination will be held ia
Taylor   Hall.
Tuesday, May 7: Professor Breasted
will give his third lecture, "The Evi-
dence and Mans Conquest of N'aturc/'