College News, 1938-11-02, Vol. 25, No. 04

              The College News
2-615
VOL. XXV, No. 4
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1938
Copyright TRUSTEES OF
BRY^MAWR  COLLEGE,  1938
PRIC12 10 CENTS
Anglo-French
Policy Condemned
by R. G. Swing
Cites     'False     Negotiations'
Made by Chamberlain
and Bonnet
Goodhart Hall, Oct. 26.�Taking
The Intrigue for World Power as his
subject, Raymond Gram Swing de-
scribed in detail the Anglo-French
policy of "peace by agreement" as it
was carried out in the recent Czechc-
slovakian crises. The tactics of "los-
ing wars without bloodshed" have
made intriguing negotiations the only
moral basis ot European diplomacy
today.
Each crisis was produced along a
similar pattern: the statement of in-
tentions by the aggressor, the rise of
resistance in ERgland and France,
and finally a betrayal of this resist-
ance from within. Mr. Swing con-
cluded: "The mistake of the past has
been ttyat the price has never been
payable at''the time," but it has al-
ways had to be paid with interest
later. He prophesied Fascist domina-
tion of the western hemisphere if the
democracies do not learn to stand
firm, even at the price of war.
"The problem since the war has
been to organize power behind jus-
tice." The League of Nations, which
was to do this, failed first because the
United States retreated, while Ger-
many and Russia could not enter the
League as it was originally organized.
Secondly, it was "tied to the Treaty
of Versailles, which was not an ex-
pression of justice." Until 1931 the
League lived on prestige and escaped
challenge.
The Japanese threat of aggtoission
into Manchuria was only backed by a
small minority and could have been
held in check if outside support had
been given to the moderates. Mr.
Swing believes a joint naval display
by England and the United States
would have been sufficient. If war had
followed, it would only have been a
naval' war, unaccompanied by bonflP
ing of civilians.
Sir John Simon, then Foreign Sec-
retary, was too much in sympathy
with Japanese expansionists to order
such a step. David Lloyd George, said
Mr. Swing, phrased the criticism
neatly when he said, "Sir John Simon
has been sitting on the fence so long,
that the iron has entered into his
soul."
The Italian  attack on  Ethiopia, a
member of the League, made it pos-
Contlnued on Page Three
United States Will
Take Cultural Lead
Dean  Manning Foresees  There
Will be Democratic Decline
No General War
Muaie Room, Oct. 27.�We in
America must forget about Europe
for at least five days a week, and
work to create here a stronghold for
liberty and the arts. Mrs. Manning,
speaking in Chapel on America and
Europe, offered premises for her point
of view, which she admitted were con-
troversial and may be disproved
within a few months.
The liberal Eurepe of the nine-
teenth century, she' concluded, to
which we have turned so hopefully
and with such a romantic feeling of
nostalgia for the last half century,
and with increasing strength since
1918, is dead. The important question
for us is not, "What are we going to
do about Europe?" but "How far arc
we going to make the United States
take the place of Europe in the cul-
tural  development  of  mankind?"
There will ber she thinks, no gen-
eral European war; democracy in
Europe will continue its rapid decline;
the United States js genuinely threat-
ened by Japan in the Philippines and
by Germany in South America. From
these premises she concluded that we
must arm, not yielding to Germany
and Japan as have France and Eng-
land, but that we must prepare our-
selves for peace, not war.
Above all, we must stop turning
always and only to Europe for art,
and looking back to Washington anil
Jefferson in our government. We must
concentrate on the defense of our
ideas of what civilization should be.
In America we have energy and
creative intelligence. Here the bar-
ic, s between the races ar/s not im-
Continued on Page Four
College Calendar
Thursday, November 3.� Al-
exander   Gettler   to   speak   on
'Chemistry  in  Crime  Detection.
Goodhart, 8.30.
Friday, November 4.�A. S.
U. business meeting. Common
Room, 8 p. m.
Saturday, November 5.�Latin
Play. Goodhart, 8.30. Square
Dance.    Gymnasium,  10  p.  m.
Monday, November 7.�Phil-
osophy Club meeting. Common
Room, 7.30 p. m. Gene Irish
will read a paper on "Two
Theories of the Infinite."
Tuesday, November 8.�Cur-
rent Events, Mr. Fenwick. Com-
mon Room, 7.30.
Thursday, November 10.�
Miss Frances Perkins and the
Rt. Hon. Margaret Bondfield
will speak on The Relation of
Government to Organized Labor.
Goodhart, 8.20.
Friday, ^November 11.�Arm- �
istice  Day.    Felix   Morley  will
speak.    Goodhart, 11 p. m.
SECRETARY OF LABOR
TO SPEAK TO COLLEGE
Frances Perkins, Secretary of La-
bor, and the Right Honorable Mar-
garet Bondfield, a former Minister of
Labor of Great Britain, will speak on
The Relation of Government to Or-
ganized Labor in Goodhart Hall,"No-
vember 10, at 8.20 p m.
Students are invited to attend these
lectures free of charge. The speak-
ers are being presented by the Carola
Woerishoffer Department of Social
Economy. Miss Bondfield will reside
at the home of Miss Fairchild for
several days so that students will have
the opportunity to discuss labor prob-
lems with her. I
__________I__         X
Merion Terrified in Hallowe'en Mystery
When Seniors Revive Triennial Horror
This year, following a 21-year-old
tradition, the Merion seniors again
played their triennial Hallowe'en
prank,-undoubtedly the most effective
and thorough masquerade on campus.
This prank, which has no real name,
but which has been feebly dubbed
The Merion Scare, will go into storage
again until the present freshman are
seniors. Then,, if they feel the tradi-
tion worthy of perpetuation, they, in
turn, will play It on a college group
to whom it is entirely new.
The Merion Scare is an elaborate
drama based on the disappearance of
one senior, the near-fatal injuries of
a second, and the hysteria of a third
who also acts as general interpreter.
Constance Renninger was cast as the
missing girl who has supposedly fallen
, prey to a fate worse than death.
Louise Thompson, her head clotted
with red paint, made her appearance
on the shoulder of the lantern man,
and Catherine Richards opened the
play by beating frantically on the
Merion hall door at 11.15, and emit-
ting fiendish shrieks which must have
aroused the greater part of Denbigh.
The plot of the play is fairly
simple.    The victim was carried "into
League Budget Planned
to Include  Six  Groups
Board Anxious to Obtain �1500 in
Pledges This Week
the Warden's office after every one
had observed her pitiful condition.
Behind closed doors she mumbled
"Where is Connie?", raising her voice
whenever there were enough people
around to warrant it.
Hordes- of Merion freshmen, sopho-
mores, and juniors gathered in the
hall, genuinely frightened, but dis-
playing on the whole surprising calm.
The roll call was taken and the rumor
of Connie's absence confirmed. Un-
fortunately the success of the pro-
duction was slightly marred here by
one of the sophomores who had al-
ready gone to sleep and clung in-
sistently to her bed.
'Miss Slavin of the infirmary hur-
ried in'to examine the victim (and her
throat was probably sore by this
time). Meanwhile the interpreter
had become hysterical. Mystified, the
audience stood in the showcase whis-
pering and trying to comprehend
what had happened. What was wrong
with Tommy? And then, of course,
where was Connie?
A short while later the door bell
rang and Connie, who was by this
time bored with her evening of knit-
ting in Wyndham, sauntered in.
(Especially   contributed   by   Martlia
Van Hocsen, '39)
From Monday to Thursday this
week the Bryn Mawr League is con-
ducting a drive in which it hopes to
raise $1500. This is a large 'enough
amount so that everyone who con-
tributes should ask in a critical frame
of mind what it is going for.
The League Board allocates the
largest sum for the children's camp
which raises a large part of its own
funds, but still will need about $1200
more. This last summer twelve Bryn
Mawr students were given the op-
portunity of working at the camp.
Most of the other groups have not,
in the past, been given a definite
and planned part of the budget, and
naturally there is no need of includ-
ing them all. Blind school, for in-
stance, gives experience to a larger
number of students than any other of
the committees that do social work,
but it does not appear to need finan-
cial help. On the other hand, the board
felt that any committee which could,
with more money, bring.its work to
a higher standard should take a very
real part in the planning and carry-
ing out of the financial program. The
Maids' and Porters' classes have been
allowed fifty dollars for the Christmas
dance, part of the expenses of the
play, and a small speakers fund if the
members wish to hear about subjects
of special interest. The Industrial,
Group wishes to increase the breadth']
and variety of its Discussion by in-
viting Alumnae of the Summer -School
and some of the members of the Ken-
sington Y. W. C. A. as well as an
outside speaker. For this we allow
thirty dollars. The Haverford Com-
munity Center committee requests
twenty dollars for equipment for
groups at the center.
In the hope of broadening the work
of the League to some.degree, the
board has set aside seventy-five dol-
lars to send some _members_to ob-
serve Student Christian Movement
Conferences and possibly to bring a
Continued on Pag-e Four
Racial and Economical
Situation Considered
International     Relations     Club
Hears Mr. Miller, Mr. Wells
Speak on Europe
Common Room, Oct. 31: In a meet-
ing focused on Central Europe, the
International Relations Club heard
the opinions of Mr. Miller, of the
Sociology Department, and Mr. Wells
of the Politics Department, on the
racial and economic factors in the
present situation.         �
Mr. Miller based his discussion on
the question of whether or not the
present situation in Central Europe
could be solved on the grounds of na-
tionality. In answering this question
in the negative, Mr. Miller gave as
his chief reason the fact that the lack
of racial borderlines  presents an in-
surmountable obstacle in the solution! shop is wanted.
of the present problem. There are
nineteen nationalities in Central Eu-
rope, extending from the Baltic to the
Mediterranean, divided before the war
between the empires of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Russia and Tur-
key. A nationality, Mr. Miller pointed
out, is a group of people that belongs
together by reason of its own history
and language. It is held together by
the patriotic belief that it has a right
to  its  own  self-respect.
Bohemia, an aggregate of German
and   Czech   peoples,  (fas  been   ruled,
from   the time  of the   Holy   Roman
Continued   on  Page  Five
SALMONY WILL SPEAK
ON EASTERN BRONZES
Poster Contest
Win a series ticket to the six
entertainments presented by the
College Entertainment Com-
mittee! Make a prize-winning
poster advertising the series and
giving the prices and dates. The
contest will be held for two
weeks, closing November 11.
Judges of the posters will be Mr.
Wyncie King, Mr. Stephen J.
Herben and Miss Agnes K.
Lake. See Margaret Bell, Pem-
broke East 62, for material to
be included in the posters, and
for any further information.   .
Mr. Alfred Salmony will give two
illustrated lectures at the Deanery
this mwrth:.one tonight and one No-
vember aO. It will be his first appear-
ance at Bryn Mawr since he spoke
here  two years  ago.
Mr. Salmony is an authority on
both the Siberic-Nordic animal style
and on Chinese art. He is especially-
known for his work with jades and
bronzes. He intends to devote one
lecture to each.
A pupil and friend of Mr. Ernst
Diez in Vienna, Mr. Salmony woe
formerly the Curator of the Museum
of Far Eastern Art at Cologne, Ger-
many. He taught at Mills College from
1933 to 1936, and is now the Prqfessor
of Fine Arts at Nc"w York University':
He is the author of Die chinesi�ch<
LandschatH malerei (1920), Die cliin-
esische Steinplastik (1922), Europa-
Ostasien; religiose Shulpturen (1922),
and Asiatische kunst, aus-stellung
Koln (1926). His latest work is a
book on Sino-Siberian Art in the Col
lection of E.  T. Loo.
One-Act Plays Use
Experimental Form
In Opening Season
Well    Directed    Casts   Give
"The Devil On Stilts,"
"The Great Dark"
The Players' Club Friday night pro-
duction of/ihe two one-act plays was
most fittingly a success, emphasizing
as it did this year's exciting atmos-
phere of fruitful experimentation.
The music supplied in the intermis-
sion by "Miss Rice and Quartet" was
a pleasant surprise feature of the
entertainment.
Since the proceeds of the evening
were to go to the Theater Workshop,
the kind of plays given and the kind
of production given them was appro-
priate. It is to work on and to give
plays in just this way that the Work-
The plays were certainly not great
drama, and there was a minimum of
costuming and stage setting, but the
acting was unusually good. The
Players' Club has a real actress in
Caroline Garnett, who played Mrs.
O'Kecfe in Don Totheroh's The Great
Dark. Her acting is not only serious,
but mature. Sarah Meigs in the little
part of Mrs. Ryan was, as- usual,
good. The leads in The Great Dale
were well handled by Eleanor Emery
as Mrs. Garcia and Helen Sobol as
Orna.
The hardest single part of the eve-
ning was played by Virginia Nichols
as Glenda Craig in The Devil on
Stilt*. Lines like "You can't expect
to inspire a book and not be in it" can
either get a tremendous laugh or none.
Virginia Nichols got her laughs.
The adjective most frequently ap-
plied to The Great Dark by under-
graduates is the word stark. The.
scene opens at the mouth of a mine-
shaft, where there has been a cave-in.
The wives of the men are waiting for
the rescue party to break through to
their husbands. The plot is supplied
by a bitter quarrel between Mrs. Gar-
cia, wife of one of the trapped men,
and Orna, his mistress. The two
women, suddenly indifferent, go off to-
gether to lay out the corpse, Mrs.
Garcia seeing the hand of God in her
husband's death, and Orna accepting
it as the only possible solution of the
problem.
Scenery in this play consisted of a
row m saw horses, marking off the
mine shaft, a blue back drop, and a
kind of draped box on which various
actors could sit. Since The Devil on
Stilts, by Clements and Ryerson, is
set in a living room, the scenery per-
force was slightly more complicated,
or rather the properties were more
Continued on Pace Six
Mercury Theatre Production Convinces
Gullible Undergraduates of End of World
5,    ..._                                          �     -----------------
For a night at least Orson Welles
and the Mercury Theater struck ter-
ror into the Merion heart. With
their radio production of H. G.
Welles' War of the Worlds they re-
duced stalwart seniors and brave
young freshmen alike to a state bor-
dering on hysteria.                  �*'*v.
War of the Worlds, it seems, is a
graphic description- of the invasion <>f
the earth by a group of "things"
from Mars. These monsters were
said by Mr. Welles to have come to
earth' at a farmhouse near Princeton
University, Jhd to have destroyed a
vast number of human beings with
strange and wonderful fire rays. The
plot may sound fantastic to some, but
a Merion senior asstired us that it
was presented so realistically that all
who heard it took it for gospel truth.
Mr. Welles played a rather shady
trick on his gullible college audience
(not to mention a good many listen-
ers in New York and Westchester)
by presenting his drama in a series
of news bulletins interrupting a per-
fectly respectable dance program.
Apparently the senior who discov-
ered the program had innocently
turned on the radio to her favorite
station and settled, back to a quiet
evening of German and dance music.
When the bulletins began coming in
she stopped doing German. When
she heard that a considerable part of
the national guard had been burned
to a cinder /she rushed from the
room and called in a few friends, ex-
plaining what had already come over
the air.
Naturally their first thoughts were
of home. They wondered if they
should telephone their families.
"We're right in the line of fire," said
once. The other two glanced nerv-
ously out of the window and pictured
hairy beasts tapping on the glass.
"We must be calm," said the senior.
"Keep back from that window."
She claims now that her first thought
was, "No more German."
Between news flashes they tried to
tell the rest of-tfie ^�H about the
situation. They had a hard time, con-
vincing one junior, .until she was tele-
phoned by a friend who had heard
from a gas station attendant that
Princeton was going up in flames.
Realizing the awful truth she rushed
into the smoking room.
Continued on Page Three