College News, 1940-12-11, Vol. 27, No. 10

              s.
The College News
Z-81B
VOL. XXVII, No.  10
BRYN MAWR and WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1940
Copyright,  Trustees of
Bryn   Mawr   Collone,   1940
PRICE 10 C^NfS
Science Series
Fused by Weiss
In Final Lecture
Development   of   Sciences
Results From Rational
Concept of Nature
Common Room, December 9.�
Mr. Weiss concluded the series of
Science Lectures by a discussion on
the nature of the history of science.
It was not, he said a summary of
all that had been presented before,
but rather an appendix or footnote
to the other lectures.
History, Mr. Weiss said, is an at-
tempt to understand a certain
thing through the course of time,
or to see how anything becomes
what it is. That involves the two
related problems of what remains
constant and what changes in the
particular thing studied.
Our conception of science today
differs from that of the ancients.
For Aristotle, the highest science
is concerned with first principles
and necessary deductions from
them. Now the scientist does not
claim to seek first principles. He
makes a supposition and uses that
to deal with empirical  knowledge.
The constant in the history of
sc'ence is a method of approaching
facts, making a hypothesis in order
to understand the meaning of those
facts, and using inductive and de-
ductive reasoning. In one sense,
the scientist clings to his hypothe-
Continuert on Page Five
Swarthmore   to   See
B. M., Haverford Play
The Player's Club of Bryn Mawr
and the Cap and Bells of Haver-
ford will present Our Town at
Clothier Hall, Swarthmore, on
Thursday, December 19. As in the
original production there will be
complete cooperation between Hav-
erford and Bryn Mawr; the s'tage
and lighting crew will be composed
of students from both colleges.
The presentation of the play at
Swarthmore was suggested and ar-
ranged by President Morley of
Haverford. Swarthmore students
will be admitted free, but Bryn
Mawr and Haverford students will
be charged fifty cents, and outsid-
ers a dollar. If enough students
wish to go, a special bus will drive
them to Swarthmore.
Calendar
Thursday, Dec. 12.�
Spanish Club tea, 4 p. m.
Friday, Dec.  13.�
C. 0. Hardy, Wartime
Control of Prices, Com-
mon Room, 4 p. m.
French Club Christmas
Play, Wyndham, 8. 30 p. m.
Maids' and Porters' Dance,
Gym, 9 to 1 p. m.
Sunday, Dec.  15.�
Christmas   Service,
hart, 7.45 p. m.
Tuesday, Dec.  17.�
Summer Camp Christmas
Party, Common Room, 4
p. m.
Current Events, Miss Reid,
Common Room, 7.30 p. m.
Maids' and Porters' Glee
Club, Carol Singing.
Wednesday,  Dec.  18.�
German   Christmas    Play,
Common Room, 8 p. m.
\
Good-
Cooperative College
Workshop Organized
To Teach Refugees
The American Friends' Service
Committee, which administered last
summer the Wolfeboro school for
foreign scholars, has established at
Haverford the Co-operative College
Workshop, another educational
project to equip refugee professors
and artists to teach and to write in
America. Miss Hertha Kraus, as-
sociate professor of social economy
at Bryn Mawr, originated the plan.
Twenty-eight European scholars,
all recent arrivals in America; are
now living in Haverford. The
Workshop offers training courses in
education which are being taught
by Haverford, Swarthmore and
Bryn Mawr professors and other
Main Line teachers. Students of
both Haverford and Bryn Mawr are
giving tutoring conferences to fa-
miliarize every scholar with col-
loquial English and to help-with
papers, articles and books they may
be writing. After Christmas, the
members of the Workshop will
spend part of every day at one of
the neighboring colleges.
Miss Fairchild, Miss Reed, Miss
Robbins and Mr. Herben, of the
Bryn Mawr faculty, are teaching
at the Workshop; and seven Bryn
Mawr girls are already serving as
tutor-secretaries. More are need-
ed; and Ruth Lehr, '41, Rhoads
Hall, would be glad to talk to any-
one who  will offer their services.
John Marsh, Edgar Emm, Louise Classen
Excel in Joint Production of f0ur Town'
Snow Brings Out Campus Artistic Ability;
Statue Exuding Grandeur Found at Radnor
By Barbara Herman, '43
The advent of snow on Thurs-
day and Friday gave a definite im-
petus to the creative instincts of
the student body and also definite
clues as to the waywardness of the
student mind.
In back of RadnQr the impos-
ing figure of a stern and buxom
lady stood staring with icy glare
and haughty expression. Her fea-
tures were chiseled, her topknot
was in place down to the last hair,
and her complexion was of the
purest marble. That such evi-
dences of hitherto unsuspected ar-
tistic ability should come from
what we imagine to be the confines
of Radnor leads us to believe that
there is more worldliness in our
grads than meets the eye. The
only question that is troubling us
is, who was the model?
A less developed piece of sculp-
ture stood in front of Pem. West.
It was the figure of a person of
indeterminate   sex   standing   wtar
supplicating outstretched arms
made of twigs and a beaming face
done tastefully in dried apricots.
It seemed to us a good complement
to the majestic vision which sprang
in stern Juandeur from Radnor's
brow.      ^
In the Cloisters' garden someone
had taken the trouble to come out,
walk around in a little circle and
then go right back in again. We
presume this was for purposes of
meditation; and there are definite
signs of an artistic temperament
in the neatness and precision of
each footstep and in the perfect
roundness of the circle.
There was great sport around
campus, too. We know for a fact
that some little boys were sleigh-
riding in back of Rhoads (we were
trying to write a paper at the
time); and there were ski trails
in the hockey field. On the whole,
the snow seems to hare been the
instigator of great mental, spir-
itual, and physical endeavors.
Intercollege    Cooperation,
Unity of Performance
Praised
Edith Voorhaus, '42; John Marsh, '43
Hardy  to  Discuss
Economic Problems
Raised by War Policy
Charles 0. Hardy will speak on
Wartime Control of Prices in the
Common Room on Friday at four
o'clock. Mr. Hardy is a member of
the Brookings Institute 'of Wash-
ington, D. C. and in September pub-
lished a book for the Institute on
the subject of his lecture here. The
research work in this field was un-
dertaken at the request of the
United States' War Department.
In his book, Mr. Hardy analyses
the many problems connected with
pricing and governmental policy in
time of war and offers an appraisal
of price controls as they were de-
veloped during the World War.
The action of government purchas-
ing agents, use of priority sched-
ules for production, price policies
for the government and for the
public at large, and the basic points
for a war labor program are
among the many complexities of a
war economy which Mr. Hardy's
book discusses. Machinery of con-
trol and actual methods are also
analysed
A
Maids and Porters
Promise New Songs
Christmas  Concert
To be Given Jointly
The Christmas Service will be
held on Sunday evening, December
15, at 7:45 P.M. in Goodhart. The
sermon will be given by the Rev-
erend Ernest C. Earp, Church of
the Redeemer.
For the first* time Miss Rice's
orchestral group will join that of
Haverford to accompany the sing-
ing of several Christmas carols.
The Bryn Mawr and Haverford
choirs and instrumental groups will
also give a carol concert in Rob-
erts Hall, Haverford College on
Monday, December 16, at 8:15 P.M.
The choirs will sing: Tres Magi
de Gentibus by Lang, Lo, How a
Continued on Page Two
By Olivia Kahn,  '41
Goodhart,  December   7.�One of
I the most satisfying features of the
Bryn Mawr-Haverford production
of Our Town was the complete co-
operation between the two colleges.
In former years it would have been
extremely difficult not to have sep-
arated the contribution of each col-
lege towards the dramatic produc-
tion under consideration, but this
year no such difficulty exists. The
harmonious overtones may have
been due either to the skill of Fifi
Garbat, '41, who directed the play,
or to the interest of both groups
in doing a good job.
Oiir Town, the Thornton Wilder
play which came to Broadway a
few seasons agp, has probably pen-
etrated into four out of every five
of the small theatre groups in
America in a surprisingly short
time. Perhaps for this reason it
was not the best possible choice
for the major fall play, but it is
much to the credit of its producers
that they made no particular at-
tempt to follow the trail blazed
by the New York production. Lou-
ise Classen, '42, played the lead-
ing role much as Martha Scott
played it on Broadway, but the
part is not elastic. She was ably
supported by John C. Marsh, '43,
who gave an astonishingly polished
performance as George Gibbs, the
young lover. Mr. Marsh acted sim-
ply and effectively, never straining
for dramatic heights, never slip-
ping out of character. The audi-
Contlnued on Page Three
Summer Camp Party
There will be a Christmas
party on Tuesday, December
17, in the Common Room at
4 o'clock for the children who
have been at the Bryn Mawr
Summer Camp. Anyone who
is interested in the Camp
may come. The case workers
from the Founding Society in
Philadelphia have been in-
vited, and supper will be
served for them after the
party.
Students Asked Not to Use Reserve Room
Because If They Do the Books Pile Up So
By Marguerite Bogatko, '41
Every single Bryn Mawr under-
graduate knows about the Reserve
Room in the library or at least
thinks she does. Anyone who ha3
never been in the Reserve Room
has probably never passed fresh-
man English and so is ruled out
of any intelligent discussion. This
is going to be an intelligent dis-
cussion of why, where, and .what
goes on in your reserve room.
Of course, it's really much more
restful   to  sit  and  dream  at  the
The   Maids'   and   Porters'   Gleej|arge shiny desk in the west wing
Club promises an entirely changed I where the record library and the
repertoire for this year's Christ-
mas carolling. All the spirituals
are new, and Meg Wadsworth, the
director, has collected several
Christmas songs.
The group has been greatly en-
larged this year, from. 36 to about
40. Regular attendance and great
enthusiasm have marked the re-
hearsals, and this Christmas, for
the first time, the Glee Club will
sing with sheet music.
book elevator are. Not much
chance for dreaming in the hurly-
burly of the old reserve room, but
there are loads of interesting peo-
ple around. There are those inter-
esting  people  who  just  take  the
night now." There are people with
untidy hair who rush up and say
accusingly, "And where is my
book?"
"What book and who are you?"
one asks tactfully.
"Oh, never mind," they say bit-
terly, taking all the slips out of
the box and throwing them on the
floor.
Last but not least there are the
spie"s. Sometimes they just peek
in and sometimes they come in and
have a good look around. "Books
are sort of piling up, aren't they?"
the gestapo says casually to the
reserve room girl.
"Oh, do you really think so?"
the r. r. girl answers politely, pre-
tending that she thinks her sinister,
visitor is just making conversation.
If only all those girls who believe
in   a   thorough   flve-minutes-to-a-
books down to Rhoads instead of  book  review  before the  quiz  and
signing them out and the people
who smile and say at 7:30, "Oh,
don't be such an old meanie, there
are twelve other copies of this
book, so let me take one out over-
those girls who do their history
reading and their music reading
would go away, books wouldn't pile
up. But, of course, nobody even
thinks of that.
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