College News, 1931-04-15, Vol. 17, No. 18

              V
College News
Vol. XVII, No. 18
WAYNE AND BRYN MAWR, PA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1931
Price: 10 Cents
Socialism Discussed
�By Norman Thomas
--------   *      *
Capitalist Age Fails to Give the
Economic Security and
Peace Needed.
NEW    WAR    PROPHESIED
Norman Thomas, executive director of
the League for Industrial Democracy,
author of America's Way Out, and
former Socialist candidate for President,
spoke in Goodhart Hall last Thursday
night on "Socialism, a Program for
Democracy." The lecture was the last of
a series on Communism, the New Capi-
talism and Socialism, held under the aus-
pices of the Liberal Club. Discussion in
the Common Room followed Mr,
Thomas' speech.
^ "It is almost too easy," Mr. Thomas
l>egan, "especially since the stock market
crash of October, 1929, to convince peo-
ple of the unsoundness of our present
economic order. Even Al Smith and
Owen D. Young, it is said, are agreed
that our economic system is not perfect.
The real difficulty is in persuading people
to do something about it. There are far
too   many   people   'talking   like   Com-
�muniitii holding jobs like Babbits, voting
like Republicans.'"
The status quo is usually defended to-
, day on the grounds that things are far
better than they used to be. Such a
test is invalid; the real (|uestioif is not
how much conditions have improved but
how good they are in proportion to what
they might"be.
We find in current literature a ques-
tioning attitude, disillusion, pessimism
about the meaning of life. The preva-
lence oi admiration among certain classes
lor such racketeers as Al Cajione is
further proof of the moral weakness of
the age. A strong age has standards,
however wrong. And yet Al Capone is
not very different as a hero from John D.
Rockefeller. One endows colleges, fhe
nther soup kitchens.
Two Great Failures of Age
Our age has failed in two great things.
It has not provided economic security and
it has not provided peace. Reasonably
able-bodied people have a right to expect
a livelihood as -the result of labor. What-
ever the faults of serfdom and the gild
system and whatever the hardships of
pioneer times one was always sure of
work.    Today in the midst of increasing
('(�nilnurd mi   I'uce Six
Varsity Dramatics
The Varsity Players will present
"The Enchanted April," by Kane
Campbell, on Saturday, April 25,
in Goodhart Hall. The men's parts
will be taken by members of Hav-
erford College.
Angna Enters Gives
Program of Dances
Humor and Simplicity Are Aims,
Not Acstheticism of
Interpretation.
ART    OF    MONOLOGUIST
On Saturday, April eleventh, Bryn
Mawr found a rare delight in the danc-
ing of Angna Enters. Hers is a new
creation in the field of dancing. It
has neither the aesthcticistn of Isadora
Duncan, nor the pose and color effects
of the Denishawns, nor the interpretive
physical motion -of Mary Wigman.
Miss Enters does not try to be grace-
ful, to be beautiful, or to interpret
music; she is a humorist, and in this
she"discards, the fundamental rules of
dancing. In the classic white robes of
"Delsarte" she has the audacity- to
bring laughter on the Greeks and their
earnest disciples by her ungainly poses
portraying the emotions. One of her
numbers is a perspiring, mosquito-bit-
ten school girl in a middy-blouse, per-
forming in a "Field Day" to the
accompaniment of a Sousa march. In
"Pique-Xique" she does not dance at
all, but fishes on a bank while an um-
brella conveys to us the picture of her
admirer asleep in its shade. She draws
her characters from youth, and in the
naivete of that youth lies her fresh and
unnialicious  humor.
More serious is the red-rohed
madonna of the "Moyen-Age," who
by   merely   moving   her   hands   retails
i urn imi.-ii   on   l'age   Four
Bryn Mawr to Debate
The class in Public Speaking is
holding a debate with Havcrford Col-
lege on Thursday, April 16, from 2 to
3 o'clock in Room F, Taylor. The
subject for debate will be: "Resolved,
That the emergence of woman from
the home is an undesirable feature of
modern life." Bryn Mawr had little
choice but to take the negative.
r BEN GREET PLAYERS COMING FRIDAY, APRIL  17
Self-Government Elections
The Executive Board of the
Self-Government Association for
next ydar: Alice Lee Hardenberg
was chosen for president; vice
president, Josephine Graton:
third senior member, Lucy San-
born; first junior member, Polly
Barnitz; second junior member.
Margaret Collier; third junior
member, Elinor Collins; first
sophomore member, Harriet
Mitchell; second sophomore
member, Katherine Gribbel.
Miss ^Hardenberg was pre-
pared at Sunset Hill, Kansas
City, Mo., where she was promi-
nent in hockey and tennis. At
Bryn Mawr she has been a mem-
ber of the choir and glee club,
president of the Junior Class and
a representative on the Self-
Government Association since
her Sophomore year. She plays
varsity basketball and is captain
of the tennis team.
Miss Josephine Graton gradu-
ated from Buckingham School,
Cambridge, Mass. She has been
a member of the choir and Glee
Club and was vice president of
the Junior Class. She was
chosen as Freshman representa-
tive on the League and then
elected secretary for her Sopho-
more and Junior years. This
' year she was a Junior member *
of Self-Government Association.
The secretary and treasurer
have not been chosen yet.
Sir Philip Ben Greet
and English Cast Come
"Twelfth Night" Will Be Given
in .True Elizabethan Manner
by Famous  Authority.
HERALD    PURE    DICTION
Professor Laski Speaks on the "Future of
Parliamentary Government in England"
Chief Weaknesses of a System Outmoded in Application to Modern
Society Are Useless Second Chamber and Autocratic
Cabinet; Socialistic Reconstruction Urged. .
PARLIAMENT MUST FILL ECONOMIC NEEDS OR FAIL
Sir Philip Hen Greet and his brilliant
cast of English players are to give I
performance of Twilfth Night in Good-
hart on Friday, April 17. After the suc-
cess of their 1929-30 transcontinental tour,
the company has returned again this year,
adding Macbeth, As Yon Like It and
Hamlet (second tmartoi to Tuvlfth
Night, liveryman and Hamlet (first
quarto I.
These Shakespearean productions have
set the standard both in England and in
America, for Sir Philip, who has been on
the stage for fifty years and has {taught
more actors than, any living man, is
world-famous as one of the greatest
living authorities on the English drama.
The plays are presented iii the true Eliza-
bethan manner, modified only by the. use
of richer and more elaborate-hangings
than wire originally used The simplicity
of his productions, based oh the theory
that "the stage should stimulate and in-
spire rather than relieve the imagination,"
together with the skill of the actors in
the art of speaking words, keep intact
the significance orthe plays.
Sir Philip has been widely recognised.
He was knighted by King George in 192*'.
His season at the Garden Theatre in
New York was extended to nearly 20(1
performances. He has received remark-"
ably enthusiastic press notices, almost j
everyone remarking especially the fault-
lessness of the diction. The Rocky
Mountain News says that "their delivery
was well-nigh perfect," and the New
York Times observes that "it is the keen-
ed   sort   ��<  |>l<-acncf tn  haw , ^lial-ir.r�ar� i
The MaHory Whiting Webster Me-
morial Lecture in History was given
this year by Professor Harold J. Laski,
Professor of Political Science at the
University of London, Labour Member
of Parliament, and author of many
books on  Political Economy.
Speaking on "The Future of Parlia-
mentary Government in England," Mr.
Laski found the chief defect of the
present system to be the almost com-
plete subjection of Parliament to a
small and autocratic group of ministers,
and the only solution, without revolu-
tion, a shift to socialistic standards.
"A hundred years ago the House of
Commons was the centre of all that
was essential to national life; discus-
sion there illumined national thought,"
although, as Bagehot said in 1867, "The
only cure for admiration for the House
of Lords is to go look at it." There
is today no need for a second chamber
which under a Conservative govern-
ment is soninanibulent, and, under a
Liberal government, furious.
The Common! have lost the initia-
tive in legislation, and are totally de-
pendent upon the Cabinet chosen from
their ranks. Daily discussion is not of
great importance, for if a question is
too vital, the minister concerned de-
clares it not for public view. The
independence of the private member is
gone, and he is now a unit in a voting
system; he cannot vote as he thinks
because party voting is essential to
prevent dissolution. The main deci-
sions lie outside the Commons, witness
the brief debates and little questioning
of the results of the Imperial Confer-
ence of this year, of the Indian Con-
ference which was the most momentous
event  since peace, or of the  Palestine
Russian Facts Shown
By Maurice Hindus
Private   Property,   Religion   and
the Family Considered
Soviet Enemies.
WOMEN    PRIME    MOVERS
To moralize and prophesy were two
things which Maurice Hindis refused
to do in speaking oil Russia. Mr. Hin-
dus was the guest lecturer of the
Pennsylvania Women's . League of
Voters Tuesday evening. April 7.
Morals are discarded in war. and if if
were nqt that the guns are all on one
side Russia would be in a slate of war.
He was not inclined to prophesy- be-
cause the Russians have paid no heed
to him anyway. His desire was to
create an understanding of -the human
facts concerned with his  subject.
Practically ^ill private enterprise has
been snuffed out except in t'u- open
market! Although the government
sells food cheaply it is of a limited
variety. Cabbage soup, black bread.,
and vegetable oil for breakfast, lunch
and dinner is not an enlivening diet and
so the open market* *havc plc^ju ol
customers. N"i>w, too.jjjjere are no
church   bells,   uji   .tyiTidays.     The   Un-
acted on his acting merits .  . .   Vou can
actually understand the words and sense
of what is spoken."
Of Twelfth Night, which the players
are to .produce here, the Mobile Register
has said: "It is exceedingly doubtful if
theatregoers ever witnessed acting in this
city that surpassed that of this talented
group from across the waters," and Wil-
liam F. McDermott, commenting in the
Cleveland   Plain   Dealer   upon  the   Per-
Cantlnued   ��   P�ff  Tw�
�t?m�take*�a*t jwliday�cvt r\�httli 'H�y
regularly. These changes did not take
place at one blow. Momentum had
been slowly gathered while Russia I
moved further from western clvthxa-
tion.
The Russian has decided that �i
know nothing of human nature, of the
intellect, the spirit, or the emotions.
We only know how the) react to cer-
tain conditions. Change these condi-
tiorrs and a newsman   appears,  trans-
problem and Lord Passfield's White
Paper. The House accepts these con-
clusions, and does not see them again
till they are formulated in a bill which
must be passed if the Anglo-Indian
situation is not to be upset. Finally,
the pressure of business is so great as
to curtail the governmental activities
of the members.
Because of this, there has been a
great and desirable growth of dele-
gated legislation. In the nineteenth
century, every law was settled in detail
in regular session: now the govern-
ment passes a number of statutes, and
the departments can supply the suit-
able details. The effective organ of
government has passed from the House
of Commons to the departments of
state, and the main reason for this is
economic. England is no longer the
richest nation, her ruling class no
longer so firmly established that con-
cessions will not alter the central bal-
ance of power. Economic supremacy
is gone, and, party Quarrel* are now
based not on problems of liberty but
of equality,
"We have now," declared Mr. Laski,
"grave economic questions, but the
possibility of solving them on the floor
of the Commons is smal), � Without
drastic changes, we will drift, into a
Fascist or a Communist dictatorship,
and the latter as the outcome of a
European war.
Assuming the hypothesis that Mc-
Donald will be defeated and Haldwiu
will come back and reconstruct the
House of Lords on the lines of the pro-
posals of 1925, a Labour government
would be unable to carry any legisla-
tion, and a governmental deadlock
would ensue. The solution of this
problem is either single chamber gov-
ernment, or the construction of a
second chamber so completely deprived
of any legislative authority as not to
act- as such. It is impossible to have
a second chamber and maintain the
li\ potlu-sis of equalitariani.sin.
Even the Cabinet is now divided, and
the outer cabinet merely echoes the
inner cabinet of perhaps six who really
direct policy. This is because the
pressure upon individual ministers is
so tense, even with the "blue labclism"
practiced by subordinates who en-
deavour to discriminate in the mass of
literature which comes to them. Tech-
nically, the Cabinet i- responsive to '
public opinion, but when i- opinion
public, and#wlien is it opinion? Poten-
tial autocracy is, however, tempered by
tlie   prospect  of  revolt.    -
There i>, therefore, a definite prob-
lem of reconstruction, "\W must get
rid of the government's domination of
the House. If the power to decide the
vote of no confidence were transferred
to the'Speaker; with a consequent pro-
tection to minorities,,the private mem-
ber would be free and. independent."
Moreover, the private-.member should
be relieved in the prOCCSS of adminis-
tration by ^.series of advisory coro-
uutteesjfHittinB and rttftclissing with the
rnjhftsters measures before they are in-
troduced,   so   that   their   idea-   may   be
expressed without impairing his pres-
tige.    Also, officials of the department
involved    should   -be   brought   into   the
( mil inn. it   mi    Vilfr   1. llr
< ���in�r<l ��� !��*�  (IS
Further News Elections
The" MEws CCgret-S to announce
the resignation from the Editorial
Hoard uf I.no Sanboru, .>-'. Edi-
tor-in-Chief. [930-31. and Dorothea
I'erkms. '32, (Editor.
M Nichols. M, and C. F. Grant,
'34, have been elected to the Edi-
torial  Hoard.
f*