College News, 1938-10-26, Vol. 25, No. 03

              The College News
Z-615
VOL. XXV, No. 3
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1938
Florence Allen
Gives First of
Shaw Lectures
Freedom and Unity Formed
Underlying Principle of
Constitution
Copyright TRUSTEES OF
BRYN   MAWR  COLLEGE,  1938
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PRICE 10 CENTS
NEW SCIENCE BUILDING
LAWS NOT INFALLIBLE
NOR SELF - EXECUTING
Goodhart, October 24.�Judge Allen
in the first of her six lectures en-
titled The Historical Development of
the   Constitutional   Powers  spoke  on
the Constitution as an Instrument of
Freedom. She pointed out that the
underlying; purpose of the statute was
to form a government capable of giv-
ing liberty and unity to its people,
while the economic motive, so often
said to be of primary importance
was" only secondary in the minds of
those who framed it.
Since many of the provisions are
powerless as long as the public re-
main-; ignorant of them, Judge Alien
urged that everyone read the Consti-
tution, understand its original pur-
pose and setting-and realize, that it is
neither infallible nor completely self-
executing. Because the document
alone does not assure that the supreme
law of the land is being carried out
everywhere, Judge Allen feels that
each generation must recreate its own
freedom."-               i ( "
The history of the1 American Revo-
lution, Judge Allen pointed out, has
been very dramatic with the hard-
ships of the pioneers, the endurance
of the soldiers and the spirit of free-
dom that permeated all classes, arti-
sans as well as aristocrats. -Out of
this struggle came the Constitution
which unified America into a nation.
Such growth makes the noise of his-
tory, the noise, as Victor Hugo says,
of "wooden sabbots going up and
silken slippers coming down the steps
of  time."
Before leaving Europe, most of the
colonists had suffered persecution of
some sort ^r another and were de-
termined to establish freedom in the
new world; here they had been thrown
more and more on their own resources,
for when the Indians attacked, the
colonists had only themselves to rely
Freedom was in every settler's
and   was  aggravated  by  Eng-
Science Building Opens Amid
Series of Lectures to Alumnae
Norman   L.   Bowen   Speaks   on   Alliance   of   Chemistry
And  Geology;  Growth   of   Sciences   Since
Pre-Dalton   Days  Traced
FACULTY CONDUCT
DISCUSSION GROUPS
Miss Park Presents
Freshmen Statistics
Music Room, October 18 and Oc-
tober 20.�This year President-Park
has devoted two chapel discussions
to freshman statistics, emphasizing
the fact that the large incoming class
has added 25 more students to the
college quota. The construction of
the new hall, Rhoads, will allow the
college to continue its expansion,
which has been progressing steadily
since the building of the first hall,
Merion, and will continue to increase
until 500 students are enrolled. This
is the size Miss Park feels is most
suitable for a small college..
The completion of Rhoads South has
provided room for 34 more students
in residence. The college has living
quarters sufficient to accommodate 409
students now, and the 39 non-resi-
dent students aria" six juniors abroad
bring the total number of the stu-
Contlnued on  Pane Four
Lectures   Informal
At Summer School
Union and Non-Union Workers
*      Enrolled Represent Cross
Section of Labor
on.
1)1 ood
land's numerous taxes and trade re-
strictions.
It is therefore unfair, Judge Allen
said, to claim that the framers of
*the Constitution, taking part in this
same struggle for liberty, were moti-
vated primarily by the desire to en-
rich their own class. They too sought
Continued on Pape "Six     '
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Friday, October 28.�Two one-
act   plays   to  be   given  by  the
Players'  Club.    Goodhart,  8.30.
to Saturday,   October   29.�Den-
bigh  and   Merion   Hall  dances.
Sunday, October SO. � Dr.
Helen Flanders Dunbar will
speak in chapel. Music Room,
7.30.   ""
Tuesday/, November 1.�Cur-
rent Events, Mr. Fenwick. Com-
mon Room, 7.30.
Wednesday, November 2.�In-
dustrial   Group   Supper.     Com-'
mon   Room,  6.30.'
Thursday, November S.�Al-
exander Gettler to speak on
Chemistry in Crime Detection.
Goodhart, 8.30.
Saturday, November 5.�Latin
Play. Goodhart, 8.30. Square
Dance.   Gymnasium, 10 p. m.
International Impromptu Reveals Mine
Of Talent Amongst Graduate Students
Wyndham, October 83.�Alumnae i Grazia "Avitable and Carla Faa, the
Weekend's gayest entertainment was | itanan students, sang blatantly off key
International Impromptu, given at the ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ rf giyinj,
French  House by a mixed group of
graduates and undergraduates.
Though it was not entirely impromptu,
it had all the freshness of a quick-
spur-of-the-moment undertaking with-
out any of its faults; its particular
merit was that it revealed the mine qf
talent which has been housed in Rad*
nor like the Fort Knox gold, secure
and unattainable. Diverse accomplish-
ments were woven into a skit by Mar-
garet Otis, '39, who also played the
\ part of Miss Blinks, an effusive alum-
na, down at the heel but still enthusi-
. astic.
Miss Blinks opened the performance
by stomping in behind her little gnaup
and explaining to them the sort of
thing that the alumnae would like to
see. Arsenia Arroyo, the Spanish stu-
dent, obligi**gly-Hpse to her feet and
accompanied by spirited music, swir-
ling skirts and castanets, danced a
Spanish dance. After she had retired
amid tumultuous applause from the
bona fide alumnae, the other Students
played their parts, each in the spirit of.
her country.
the wrong impression of Italian opera.
Their conversation was put to a tem-
porary halt by the reappearance of
Miss Arroyo, who this time combined
dancing and singing. Another gentle
disagreement arose between the Chin-
ese students, Agnes Ch'en and Nancy
Woo. Miss Ch'en was playing a very
interesting Chinese melody on a two-
stringed-violin, when Miss Vfbo hur-
ried in and wrested the violin away
from her. Miss Blinks tactfully inter-
vened by asking the French arid Fin-
nish students, Solange rfajcrmemond
and Anna Hietanen, what they could
do. Miss Jacquetnond was of a retir-
ing nature, and Miss Hietanen, equip-
ped with a hammer and what we hope
was a Finnish knife dangling from her
belt, had "to go on a Geology Field
Trip." For no particular reason, a
strange uproar arose after she made
this announcement and it was only
quieted when a messenger came in and
talipped a telegram into Miss Blinks'
hand. Opening it, she read the glad
Continued on  Page Four
(Especially Contributed by Eleanor
K. Taft, '89 and Helen J. Cobb, '40)
When Judge Allen said Monday
night that the preservation of liberty
needs constant education, she touched
on the purpose of the Summer School.
It was founded in 1921 by Pies. M.
Carey Thomas and Dean Hilda Smith
of Bryn Mawr College "to give a pen
and tongue to the Labor Movement."
Because it was not factional, and be-
cause of the quality of its leadership,
four similar schools are today serving
workers elsewhere in the United
States. Yearly about seventy girls go
from Bryn Mawr with knowledge
which should make them better mem-
bers of their community.
The Bryn Mawr students are hand-
picked workers from Y.W.C.A. and
union groups east of Denver and north
of Atlanta, Ga. This year the four
foreign students were from Canada,
England and Denmark. Sofie Fricke,
the Danish girl is now studying at
Pendel Hill near Swarthmore. She
may come to the November 2nd nieet-
Contlnued on Pace Five
GOODHART PROGRAM
PRECEDES   OPENING
October 2.1 � On Sunday morning
four separate conferences were held
for the benefit of the alumnae by the
departments of psychology, physics,
mathematics and biology. The topic
discussed was the place of these de-
partments in the college curriculum.
�   J      Psychology
The Library, October i.'.?.�Psychol-
ogy is. by nature the nucleus of a
curriculum in that it is the meeting
place not only of the sciences, but also
of the humanities, for it is in psy-
chology that the study of matter, life,
mind, and society converge. Mr.
MacKinnon gave the alumnae this
answer to the question of the place
of the Psychology Department in the
college curriculum.
Psychology as a science is co-exten-
Bive with all other sciences. Roughly
dividing the fields of psychological
research into Sensation, Perception,
Learning, Motivation, Personality and
Character, Mr. MacKinnon pointed
out that research in Sensation and
Perception is most closely allied with
physics, research in Learning and
Motivation with biology, and research
in the fields of .Personality and Char-
acter with the social sciences.
Students   who   have   taken   merely
the introductory first year course are
at   (.nee aware of  its  many contacts
with their other fields of study.    As
Continued on  Pace Two
emeritus of ge
F. Fieser, associ
isfry at Bryn.
1930 and now p
Player's Club to Give
Experimental One-Acts
Comedy     and
Contrast
Tragedy     Present
in    Atmosphere
The Players' Club will give two
one-act plays on Friday, October 28.
The plays, The Great Dark, by
Totheroh, and The Peril on Stilts, by
Rverson and Clements, have been
chosen both with the idea of present-
ing a variety of problems for the
cast and production staffs to solve,
and with the intention of giving the
audience as great as possible a con-
trast in atmosphere. Both ;re mod-
ern, but the first is a realistic drama,
et in a small Western mining town;
he second is a comedy, lighter and
iiiio urbane. They are being pro-
luced as cheaply as possible, since
heir main purpose is to provide ex-
"'�ebnllnuea on Page Six
Goodhart Hall, October tt.�Tht
New Science Huilding was officially
opened today following a program of
speeches which outlined 'the develop-
ment of the sciences at Bryn Mawr.
Miss Park, describing the general ex-
pansion in this fold since the found-
ing of the college, was followed by
Miss Florence Bascom,- professor
and Dr. Louis
professor of chem-
fom 1925 to
of chemistry
at Harvard University. The exact
significance of the new building, and
of the whole plan for the joint teach-
ing of sciences, was pointed out by
Norman L. Bowen, Ph.D., distin-
guished service professor of petrology
at the University of Chicago, in his
talk on the Alliance of Chemistry and
Geology.
Miss Park showed how the history
of scientific expansion here, including
present developments,- has followed al-
most exactly the principles laid down
by the founders. Dr. James E.
Rhoads, first president of the college,
in his 1884 report to the Trustees,
emphasized the interrelation of the-
sciences.
Joint Teaching Forecast
"Chemistry," said Dr. Rhoads,
"which treats of the atomic and mole-
cular relations of matter, is the basis
of allied sciences." Physics, which
is closely connected with chemistry, is
in jfes turn necessary to the right un-
derstanding of mineralogy, geology,
and biology. The latter, starting
with the commonest' principles of ani-
mate action, soon separates into the
great divisions of botany and zoology,
and to the higher developments of
human physiology and psychology."
Dr. Joseph Taylor, who gave Bryn
Mawr its original endowment of one
million dollars, wanted to build a sci-
entific laboratory at the beginning.
This was not found possible, and the
first courses in chemistry and biology
had to be taught in inadequate labo-
ratories in Taylor. � The physics de-
partment, started in 1887, was housed
iri the small wooden building back of
Merion.
Agitation for a real laboratory went
on, and in 1892 several friends gave
the 40 thousand dollars necessary to
build Dalton. Three years later Miss
*�     "~~"\s>ntlnued"o!r Faite Fo*ur
At Traditional Ceremonial in Cloisters
Expert On Detection
of Crime W ill Speak
Alexander O. Gettler, chief toxicolo-
gist for the City of New York, will
speak on Chemistry and the Detection
of Crime at 8 p. m. on Thursday, No-
vember 3, in Goodhart Hall. Mr.
Cottier is a world authority on "death
under mysterious circumstances" and
hjs lecture, sponsored by the Science
Club, should interest lovers of detec-
tive fiction particularly.    A previous  �
lecture once became so exciting thai f reshman Class Receives Blue Lanterns
a male member Qf the audience
fainted.              -    �                            �
All deaths in New York City which
are not attended by a physician are
reported to Mr. Gettler's staff, and
whenever the cause baffles routine
analysis, he is responsible for dis-
covering it. Mr. Crenshaw*. of the
chemistry department here, says that
reports of Mr. Gettler's activities,
particularly in poison cases, appear
in the N. Y. Times at least once a
week.
Mr. Crenshaw, who heard Mr. Get-
tler speak several years ago and
recommended that the Science Club
arrange this lecture, says that he
cites many noted murder cases which
his toxicological evidence has solved.
Mr. Gettler's method of determining
whether a victim has been drowned
in �alt or fresh wdte* iS-used aU over
Contlnuefl on  Page  Five
Lantern Night is one of the few col-
lege traditions which seems not to
change. Buildings continue to rise on
every hand; hoops are no longer given
away in Senior Row; even the vener-
able busts in Taylor have yielded to
the seemingly irresi stable force of
progress. But still each year, on a
Friday night in October, cap-and-
gown-tflad sophomores file into the
cloisters swinging lanterns and chant-
ing their hymn of praise to Pallas
Athena. And still the freshman, after
receiving their lamps of learning,
march out singing the same "Sophias
philae paromen. . . ."
However,   interviews   with   visiting
ajumnae  reveal  that  Lantern  Night
has a long and interesting history. In
when   the   first  entering  class
ing in the freshmen, for the next year
we find them repeating the perform-
ance for the entering class .of '91.'
This system of presenting the lan-
terns was still in practice when the
class of '98 graduated, but sometime
before 1901 the ceremony had been
moved outside. The sophomores now
walked slowly around the campus, in-
toning "Pallas Athena thea"; the
freshmen, upon receiving their lan-
terns, responded by singing their class
song.
The library was built in 1904, but
apparently it was several years before
anyone realized what a perfect setting
the cloisters Vou'd make for an occa-
sion like Lantern Night. Eventually,
however, the realization came, and the
Prize-Winner
Frances Fox, '38, won a play-
writing competition this sum-
mer at the Breadloaf School in
Mffldlebury, Vermont. Heiyrize-
winning play was written last
year in the Play Writing course
conducted by Mrf Herbert Mc-
Aneny.
------7~
h'omores, they decided to give ceremony   was  aRain   cnai,Ked  to  fit
a play for their bewildered freshmen.
At the end of the show, with great
flourishes and much mirth, the fresh-
men were given tiny lanterns, ahout
three or four inches high, to guide
them along the tortuous path to learn-
ing and, more specifically, to help
them through college. The gesture was
intended, as a joke, but evidently it
touched some deep-laid chord of feel-
even  better its new  rather monastic
setting.                �   f
For some time, the Freshman song
was different each year, but at some
unknown date it wfls standardized, and
a hymn called "Over the Way to the
Sacred Shrine" became the regular re-
sponse.   The present "Sophias Philae,"
translated from'- Pericles funeral ora-
Contlnued on Page Three
*�.