College News, 1937-12-08, Vol. 24, No. 09

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College News
VOL. XXIV, NoT 9
'BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1937   -B^SyrAhi,I%8,T.ErE.?B0?.�      PRICE 10 CENTS
In  Spanish  Survey
Joseph Lash  Cites
Loyalist Advantage
A. S. U. Speaker Traces Efforts
Of the People to Organize
Military   Forces
ANTI-FASCIST FORCES
NQW WELL INTEGRATED
Common Room, December 7.�The
Spanish government, due to the atti-'
tude of its people, is not in such a
precarious position as is commonly
thought, said Joseph Lash, Executive
Secretary of the American Students'
Union at an open meeting of the Bryn
Mawr chapter. In spite of its original
basic lacks, as opposed to the advan-
tages on the rebel side, the govern-
ment since July, 1936, has resolved
the oppositions within itself, and to-
day its army of 550,000 trained men
is well organized and efficient.
The basic difficulties that the Span-
ish government has met laid in the re-
lations among the Spanish people, al-
though bound together in opposition
to Fascism. There were both sec-
tional and political clashes within
the Loyalist populations: Catalonia
and the Basque country claimed au-
tonomy and separated from the gov-
ernment, three provinces broke off
economic relations; and one town
within the would-be autonomous Ara-
gon attempted to split off from both
Aragon and the government. The po-
litical oppositions among the Loyal-
ists have been mainly between the
Anarchists, the Trotskyites and those
supporting Spanish Democracy in and
for itself.
Mr. Lash feels that his optimism is
supported by the fact that the Popu-
lar Front has not only overcome these
inherent oppositions, but has also
built up its army against the extra-
ordinary advantages of the Rebel
Army. Franco has had the support
of the landed aristocracy, of big in-
dustry, and of Germany and Italy.
Into his ranks poured the managers
and technicians of industry, the agri-
cultura]_e*p6'rts and the civil servants.
This "decapitation" of the govern-
ment forces left the Loyalists with no
system of justice, no police system, no
centralization, and very little knowl-
edge of military science. It was the
Continued on Page Six
Constance   Renninger
Interprets    Aquinas
In    Process    of    Intellection    Lies
Marfs Perfection
Common Room, November SO.�
Man's comprehension is essentially
homogeneous, said Constance Ren-
ninger, '39, in a meeting of the Phil-
osophy Club. This is in the sense that
concepts are assigned varied connota-
tions by the mind when an image of
that concept cannot be formed. From
this we can conclude, with Descartes,
that a difference exists between
imagination  and  intellection.
Intellection, as imageless, "is man's
most completely personal kind of
awareness. Individual being is homo-
geneous." Similarly, personal iden-
tity, as immediate sensation, cannot
be qualified except as"a feeling of life;
this aspect, common to every percep-
tual act, unifies an individual's experi-
ence and is distinct from whatever
properties the objects of sensation
may have. This unity is always gen-
erated by being and living as such.
Feeling is not solely applicable to
emotional functions: "both emotion
and intellection have the same imag-
inative kind of being in man." Feel-
ing, in other words, is involved in
all activity whether of sensation or
of intellection. This unity of feeling
is each man's truth for himself�his
truth of being as well as his standard
for the truth of external things.
Infinite concepts are evolved by in-
tellection, not by the imaginative fac-
ulty. "It is in the underlying process
of all living, that of intellection, that
superlative can really be thought."
For instance, "Empty, unlimited space
is the nearest approximation to an
. . . imaginative conception of God."
And whereas God is most easily imag-
ined as "light," so man, as corporeal
and internal "is more easily imagined
as a dark space." . . . That is, for the
imagination, corporeality and incor-
poreality, as internal and external re-
spectively, are naturally imagined as
"dark'/ and "light."
"Thomas Aquinas' cosmological
proof of the existence of God shows
. . . he thought of his individual unity
as a light spirit and as a dependent
one," presupposing at the same time
an absolute relation of cause and effect
in the universe. The cosmological
Continued on Pare Three
'Yale Man's Guide Book' Prepares Readers
For  Football,-  Wimmin  and  New  York
Dr. Phelps Supposes That 200
Of B. M.'s Senior Class
Have Been Abroad
There has lately come into our
hands a copy of the Ya[e Man's
(19S7-S8) Guide Book.   This is an il-
On pages 12 and 13 we have two
more athletics articles, which this
time we read. The first is by Richard
Vidmer of the New York Herald
Tribune, and is a puerile little piece
on the ancient theme of the� feminine
guest at a football game who does not
understand or appreciate football. The
lustrated brochure of 36 pages which            , .       ..   ,  �    .,   �   .  n_      .
...       _ . .               r �         ,       second is called Football, A Game by
should be of interest to our readers   T           � �       , ,   -,       ,   ,    �,.
....              .        .   j               ...    Larry   Kelley    (of   Everybody   There
chiefly because it includes an article   �      -, ,,     ,       .     �    ,.  ,,   . �
*                  .  ,         ..                ,    Saw Kelley fame).   Football, A Game
on Bryn Mawr, interpreting a week-   ...     � �                      ,
, ,-            ,     '    .  . *     , � .              (Mr.  Kelley seems to have a genius
end here to the uninformed Yale man.   ,      ....   .   .                               �    .. _�
_     ,                 ,    ,.     �          ,          ,    for titles)  is a panegyric on football
On closer examination it reveals much     , . ,   .               ,            ..    .    . ___
,   � ,         T        -. ,         .  �        which is summed up in the last para-
jrbout  Yale to the uninformed  Bryn          ,                 ,,..,      ....                    ,
T^                                                       '     graph,  quote:   "It's  still  a  game  of
twenty-two boys on a field a hundred
The booklet begins with five pages  yards ]ong> some of them not 80 good
on athletics interspersed with various at Latin perhaps, but still very dfc
portraits of earnest looking gentle- termined to get a certain oval-s>rl5ed
men concerned with sport. These pigskin ban over a white* xfa and
pages looked tedious, so we did not naving a darn good time Joing it"
read them. Then, comes the University  Tjnquote.
Calendar which we also skipped; this, Now we come to the pith of the
however, is followed by a few words brochure, viz, four articles called re-
by Professor William Lyon Phelps spectively Weekend at Vassar, Week-
loosely entitled The . College Year, end at Smithi Weekend at Wellesley,
to which we devoted much study. Weekend at Bryn Mawr. These are
We can confidently say that this con- not arranged in alphabetical order ob-
tains no new material valuable to the vioU8iV) Dut, presumably, in order of
Yale freshman or any freshman. It preference. Vassar and Wellesley, to
begins by asserting that America has our jaundiced eye, sound exactly the
the best weather of anv^ountry inJ^ejSame, .Theyjjeth boast of quiet coun-
world; rt-gu*� o� y* ^ >;.�.� Ivt^&tfi *r> Kk|sh0re sports, and describe in
students are widely traveled;  and-it giowjng   detail   the   glory   of   their
Career as  Barrister
Planned by Panof sky
�    ..^   \j�                     _^^^^^^
Led by^aege' j*�w i leld of Art,
Attained Ph.D., Grimm Prize
At Age of 21    ,
CAME TO AMERICA IN '31
Professor Ernest Panof sky, in an
interview following the last Flcxner
lecture, outlined briefly a remarkable
career. His accomplishments repre-
sent not only a series of events spec-
tacular in themselves, but also a
record of sustained triumphs occa-
sioned by an unusual ability.
After the customary period of.
training in a "humanistic gymnas-
ium," Professor Panofsky entered the
university at Berlin with the firm in-
tention of becoming a barrister, as his
father and grandfather had been be-
fore him. However, during one of his
early terms, while he was studying
at Freiburg (for it was the custom
in Germany for college students to
move about freely from one university
to another), he met a man named
Voege, a teacher of art history.
Panofsky felt his influence so strongly
then and later that he was persuaded
their interests lay along similar lines.
Therefore, he worked in history of
art for a few years, and when he was
still only 21, wrote a paper on The
Art Theory of Diirer, which won for
him not only the coveted Grimm prize,
but also his doctor's degree. (It is of
interest to American students that
the doctorate is the first and only de-
gree given in German universities.)
After several years of independent
work, Professor Panofsky became as-
sociated with the University of Ham-
burg, and there worked in co-opera-
tion with the Harburg Institute, now
located in London, which is devoted
to showing the revival and survival of
classical ideas in art and science. Be-
cause of his fine work in this field,
Professor Panofsky was invited in
1931 to lecture at New York Uni-
versity. Of America, he said it was
a case of "love at first sight;" he had
a "marvelous time" in New York.
During his second lecture trip here
he received word that, with Hitler's
accession to power, he would no longer
be permitted to teach in Germany, and
he decided to remain permanently in
America. The telegraph operator
who received the message from Ger-
many, not being a Bryn Mawr gradu-
ate who could "read French and Ger-
man at siglit," cheerfully pasted on
the cablegram a bright green sticker
bearing the words "Happy Easter!"
For the past several years, Profes-
sor Panofsky has been associated with
the Institute for Adjwmced Study at
Princeton, but sti*l�gives\ one, lecture
course at New York UniVersity, for
old time's sake. _          i*
Although he is little concerned with
modern art, Professor Panofsky said
that it was closely related to Medi-
aeval art in that both are seeking an
escape from reality, the latter in the
use of visible symbols of a higher
life, the former in representations of
the subconscious or deeper life. In
other words, he said, surrealism may
develop into "Mediaeval art with an
inverted sign."
ryn Mawr, Professor Panofsky
he was quite impressed by the
genuine learning of many members of
our faculty, and by an unusually un-
constrained but serious attitude of
"sincere interest in work" on the part
of the students.
As a parting thought, Professor
Panofsky mentioned with charming
fatherly pride his two sons at Prince-
ton, both seniors, neither of whom is
at all interested in history of art,�for
which he says he is "very thankful."
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Saturday, December 11. Hall
dances in Merion and Rocke-
feller.__________
Sunday, December 12. Christ-
mas Carol service, Goodhart
Hall.    7.45 p. m.
Monday, December IS. Dean-,
ery party, 7 p. m.
Tuesday, December H. Sum-
mer Camp party, Common
Room, 4-6 p. m. German play,
Common Room, 8.30-9 p. m.
Maid's Carols in halls, 8 p. m. .
Wednesday, December 15.
Maid's Dance, Gym, 9 p. m. Mr.
Cienshaw will address Science
Club, Common Room, 8 p. m.
Thursday, December 16.
Christmas parties in the halls.
Herbert Miller Speaks
On "Racial Minorities"
Russia Alone Has Harmonized Small
Groups Successfully
Players' Club Gives
Technically Sound
'Bill of Divorcement'
Both   "Helpless   and  Powerful'
Portrayal Given by Smith,
Princeton, '38           *
REITLER,    '40,    PLAYS
SYDNEY CONVINCINGLY
winds up with the"statement that the
most interesting and valuable side of
college is the academic. There is one
interesting sidelight on Dr. Phelps'
opinion, which is that he supposes in
the present Bryn, Mawr senior class
there are 200 students who have been
to Europe.
"proms." Smith's article is written
in particularly coy language beginning
wit� exhortations to "my beamish
boys;" and whereas Wellesley mod-
estly assures their readers that any-
one who sends a girl one small green
orchid with lilies of the valley is "the
Continued od Pajre Four
Common Room, November SO.�Mr.
Herbert Miller, speaking to the Inter-
national Club on "Racial Minorities in
Europe," showed how Germany's im-
perialistic antagonism to her Polish
subjects and her consequent increase;
of armaments did a great deal to pre-
cipitate the World War. He consid-
ered Russia the one country which has
successfully dealt with the supposedly I
"insoluble problem" of "harmonizing
small and scattered national groups'
in Europe. Russia's treatment of
more than 40 different racial factions
within her borders, said Mr. Miller,
is exemplary.                                         ,
Mr. Miller defined that class which
opposes the attempt of a ruler to crush
out all but one language, religion, or
set of customs, in a country, as a mi-
nority. In Europe, the situation is
serious  because  such  groups are  in-
evitable and exist within the boun-
daries of every country. Even the
formation of 'new "secession" states
has not eliminated the problem for
each includes a number of parti-racial
residents.
In certain cases the government of
such countries has led to difficulties
in international diplomacy. Germany,
Poland-and Hungary'permit only their
own language to be spoken by their
residents. The natural result has
been that these nationalistic move-
ments have effected immediate opposi-
tion, and a revival of interest in their
own language by a people who other-
wise would not have considered it.
Russia's plan has eliminated' this
automatic, psychological resistance as
well as diplomatic disputes with the
mother-nations of the minorities. The
Russian program comprises a uniform
economic system and a complete local
cultural aut6nomy. With the reten-
tion of its own culture by each na-
tional group, the desire to oppose the
government disappears and, as Mr.
Miller said, "the language which the
Continued on Pace Four
Goodhart Hall, December 3. The
opening night performance of A Bill
of Divorcement, given by the Players'
Club and members of Princeton Uni-
versity, was, unlike some amateur pro-
ductions, technically flawless. That is,
the pictures stayed on the walls, the
sound was effective at the correct time,
and in spite of fears expressed by
members of the back-stage crev*r no-
body in blue jeans walked thought-
lessly past the French windows of
Acts I and III. It it seems a back-
ward process to praise first the unseen
army that works for the production
of a play, one must only remember
how disconcerting the waver of a wall,
or the misplacement of painted
shadows can be. If the scenery is
solid and convincing, the actors are
apt to live up to thrir milieu.
Unfortunately, be an amateur pro*
duction ever so professional, the audi-
ence has unaccountable instincts, one
of which is to laugh when there is
nothing funny. There is hardly ever
any reason for this except a state of
nerves produced by the tense feeling
that something untoward is about to
happen, and relief because it has not
happened already. To the average
person in such a state, the line about
horses in Act I is cause for emotion
of some sort, and since it is Act I and
the tears have not yet begun to well,
the only way out is by laughter.
Heaven forfend the actors from think-
ing their serious lines were being
taken  lightly.
If only one serious line provokes
mirth, however, the actors may as-
sume that they have, so to speak, put
themselves over. A Bill of Divorce-
ment is not comic, in any sense; even
nineteenth Century Aunt Hester only
stamps it with a deeper impress of
tragedy, and brave, unmelodramatic,
dumb tragedy that tries to hide itself
behind a comic mask is food for ex-
perience. It is not sophomoric, so one
can wonder at Frances Reitler's
surprisingly mature performance as
Sydney. The part of Sydney has
launched more than one successful
actress, but this does not prove that
it is easy. It is what one makes of it,
but it happens to be the kind of part
that is more suited to the talents of
Continued on Page Three
Embryo    Fire    Attacks
New Scientific Building
Swirling  Students  Pour From  Hall
Windows to Watch
Skiing Folders on View
Miss Petts has folders txUUm
Sky Top, Pecketts of Sugar
Hill, and the Lake Placid Club,
and all information about rates,
railroad fares, etc., which she
will be glad to show to anyone
interested in skiing. Reductions
in regular expenses will be made
to large groups.
PEACE COUNCIL PLANS
JAPANESE    BOYCOTT
Pembroke West, December 2.�At a
meeting of, the Emergency Peace
Council, plans were made and a com-
mittee appointed for a campaign for
the economic boycott of Japanese
goods, particularly raw silk used fo*
stockings. The committee, chosen by
the representatives of most of the
clubs on campus, consists of Louise
Mc*ley, '40, chairman^ Ethel Mann,
'38; Sylvia Wright, '38; Helen Ham-
ilton, '39, and Florence Scott, '38.
The committee plans a meeting on
December 13, at which speakers will
present the various aspects of such a
boycott, its economic effects upon in-
dustry, on the hosiery workers, and,
on the international situation.    These
for discussion.
The purpose of the Council in tak-
ing this action is to stimulate discus-
sion of the boycott on campus and to
facilitate its application by those who
favor it as a means of checking the
Japanese aggression in China. Later
an attempt will be made to poll stu
tytlent opinion on the matter.
December 6.�A minor fire in the
incompleted Science building brought
two fire engines, a police car, most
of Bryn Mawr's male (and some of
its escaped female) population to the
lower' campus. Equally great was the
excitement aroused among those un-
happily confined in the halls.
At 10.30 the power-house siren went
off in a rising crescendo, and in-
stantly halls not already locked were
vacated as their inmates dashed out
under various hazy impressions as to
the fire's location. A growing crowd,
collected at the lower end of Senior
Row, found only a small blaze which
was extinguished by the porters and
men from the village before the fire
apparatus arrived.
The fire was discovered by two Den-
bighites walking down Senior .Row,
who; noticed .a red glare reflected on
the walls of the new building. A
hasty glance over the high fence
showed flames licking the scaffolding
and the lower part of a wooden stair-
case. 'The two students ran to get
help at the power house and at Rad-
nor, where an efficient fire lieutenant
instantly produced six nickels and be-
Contlnued on Pas* Five