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Published in Nov., Jan., April and July by the Agnes Scott Alumnae Association Entered as second class matter under the Act of Congress, August, 1912.
Volume XIII November, 1934 Number 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Officers of the Association 2
Founder's Day and Our Fourth Alumnae Week-End 5
Clara (Whips) Dunn, '16
A Message from the Association President 6
Frances (Craighead) Dwyer, '28
Department of the Home 7
Dr. J. R. McCain
A Critique of Our Colleges 9
Richard A. Lester
Phi Beta Kappa Prospects at Chicago Under the New Plan . ... 13
C. S. Boucher
Social Trends and Social Goals 18
Cleveland Zahner, ex-'07
Mariam (McCamy) Sims 21
Irene Lowrance, '28
Pastels 22
Leonora (Owsley) Herman, Institute
New Addresses 23
Weddings 27
Births 30
Faculty News 31
Office News 32
Class News 3 5
Message from the Publicity Committee Back Cover
Janef Preston, '21
Cora (Morton) Durrett, '24,
Alumnae Trustee Dorothy Hutton, '29,
Executive Alumnae Secretary
Elinor Hamilton, '34,
Field Alumnae Secretary Frances (Craighead) Dwyer, '28,
Alumnae President
FOUNDER'S DAY AND OUR FOURTH ALUMNAE WEEK-END
Dear Agnes Scotter Everywhere:
We know you are going to like our new plan for Alumnae Week-End. You see everybody kept getting busier and busier around Thanksgiving time, — what with beaus, and dances, and turkey, and football games, and children out of school and underfoot and wanting to be taken here, there, and yonder, and college girls home to be fed and entertained, etc., etc. It was next to impossible for many of us to come back at Thanks- giving time. Since someone had the very bright idea to combine the Founder's Day celebration, which is after all a very particularly Agnes Scottish occasion, with our Alumnae Home-Coming, the College is asking us every one to come back for Friday and Saturday, February the twenty-second and twenty-third.
And what grand things they have in store for us! — On Friday night the regular Founder's Day banquet and radio program — only a bigger and better one than we ever have had. Then on Friday morning and Saturday morning we are going to try to get "edicated" all over again! Imagine!
Just listen to this! This is a part of the program:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 10:00 A M. — Miss Emma May Laney, Agnes Scott. 10:40 A. M. — Dr. Philip Davidson, Agnes Scott. 11:20 A.M. — Dr. Mercer Evans, Emory University.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23
10:00 A. M. — Dr. Leroy Loemker, Emory University.
10:40 A. M. — Dr. B_oy R. Kracke, Emory University.
11:20 A. M. — Dr. George P. Hayes, Agnes Scott.
The very best part I am saving for the last! You don't even have to leave Susie or Johnnie or Tommie or Baby Sister at home! For on Saturday morning the College will take your children and give them the very best time they ever did have, all while you get educated! They will have games and stories and plays all most scientifically worked out. And at noon on Saturday there will be a special luncheon in the Tea Room.
They are going to send us reading lists, so we can be brushing the cobwebs off our brains and getting all ready for lectures.
Do write us and tell us how you like our plans.
Yours for the grandest of grand Week-Ends,
Clara (Whips) Dunn, '16, Chairman of the Curriculum Committee.
A MESSAGE FROM THE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT
Frances (Craighead) Dwyer, '28
Let me thank you first of all for having elected me president of the Alumnae Associa- tion. I shall do my utmost during the two years of my office to advance the interests of the Association.
To the new members of the Alumnae Association, our 1934 graduates, I wish to ex- tend the sincerest greeting. You are our closest link to the College and it is from you that we want suggestions as to how the Alumnae Association can better cooperate with the student body and its projects.
All alumnae are interested, I am sure, in what the Association has done so far this year. As your representative I extended the welcome from the Alumnae Association to the new students and to those returning to the campus for the 1934-3 5 session. On the first Friday after school opened, the Association entertained the freshmen at tea at the Alumnae House. Augusta (Skeen) Cooper, Entertainment Chairman, planned a beautiful party. Printed invitations were sent, and alumnae from the Decatur and Atlanta clubs called for the freshmen and escorted them to the party. Over two hundred students and alumnae called during the afternoon.
On Wednesday, October 17, the Alumnae Association entertained the members of the Granddaughters' Club and their mothers at the Alumnae House. Augusta (Skeen) Cooper and her committee planned a seated tea, and the members of the Executive Board and the Entertainment Committee acted as hostesses.
The local clubs are sending in excellent reports of their meetings and outlines of their plans for the year. Several have book reviews on their programs, with the members participating; some of the larger clubs have outside speakers. Any group of five Agnes Scotters can form a club by communicating with Dorothy Hutton or Mary Shepherd, of Sewanee, Tenn., Chairman of Local Clubs.
A change has occurred in the Tea Room management which was made only after lengthy deliberation on the part of the Executive Board and the Tea Room Committee. Instead of running the Tea Room ourselves, and paying the manager a stipulated salary, we have rented it for $400.00 for the year to Nelle Barnett of Sharon, Ga. She is run- ning the Tea Room very satisfactorily and is delighting the nearby alumnae and faculty with her teas and luncheons. Though we are assured of our monthly rental, we must still support and patronize our tea room so that in the future we can either increase the rent, or run it on a commission basis with a higher return to the Association. When in Decatur or Atlanta, lunch in the Tea Room!
The Executive Board, at its September meeting, voted to combine Alumnae Week-End and Founder's Day activities this year. Alumnae Week-End will occur February 22-23 with the Founder's Day banquet on Friday evening, February 22, as the high point of the week-end. Clara (Whips) Dunn has planned a program that is new and different. Please, Alumnae, come back to the campus for this Home Coming — our first Home Com- ing that has occurred on Founder's Day.
Presidents of local clubs, encourage your members to attend Alumnae Week-End. Make up cars and drive to Agnes Scott for Home Coming. It will add new enthusiasm to your local clubs and will make Alumnae Week-End a worthwhile event.
A letter from your alumnae president would be incomplete without a reference to alumnae dues of $2.00 per year. Let me remind you of the benefits you get from your $2.00: four issues of the Alumnae Quarterly which is carrying, in addition to news of ourselves, outstanding articles taken from other leading college publications; an invita- tion to the Trustees' Luncheon in June; reading lists based on our curriculum for Alum- nae Week-End; the satisfaction of knowing that you are having a very definite part in maintaining the Anna Young Alumnae House and the beautiful Alumnae Garden.
DEPARTMENT OF THE HOME
J. R. McCain
For many years Agnes Scott College has dreamed of doing a distinctive piece of work for home makers in the South. Dr. F. H. Gaines, the first President of the College, thought of the plan and talked of it frequently before he died. Other officers of the College and members of the Board of Trustees have carefully considered the suggestion and feel that it would be the greatest single contribution which any institution may now make to the educational, social, and economic life of the country.
As is well known, women are influential factors in most important phases of the life of any household. The expenditure of perhaps eighty-five per cent of the money of any home is in the hands of the woman who presides in that home. The physical well-being of every member of the household is dependent upon the wise planning of the wife or mother in providing a balanced diet that is nourishing. The growth and education and training of any children that may bless the household are largely in her hands. The eternal destiny of most of them will depend upon her.
Recognizing the fact that the woman is dominant in the well-being of the community and that relatively little training has been given to women for the fulfillment of their high destiny, Agnes Scott would like to establish a unique department of training for women who are to be potential home makers.
We would like in this department to teach women about themselves, drawing out of our department of Physiology and Hygiene such information as would bear directly on the nature of a woman's body and the processes which are necessary to develop it to its most effective use in living a joyful life and in bearing children with the least possible stress on Nature's reserve.
We would like to teach our students about the coming of a baby, about its prenatal and after birth care. We would give special attention to the nourishment of the baby and the habit-forming experiences of the very early days.
It is our purpose to include in the work of this department strong courses in Child Psychology and in Education so that the mother may understand the development of her child's mind and may direct it in wholesome ways. For example, we would like to teach mothers at what age to tell Nature tales to their children, when to begin with hero stories, how Bible and other religious teachings may be employed, when catechisms or other memorizing may be effectively started.
Among the numerous other things to be included in the Department of the Home would be a careful study of nutrition, of foods, of the various methods of preparation and of serving, and we would like for our students to be well informed about all of
8 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
the latest data as to the effect of various foods on the higher cell structure of the body as well as on the stomach. We would like for those who take work in this Depart- ment to become themselves good cooks.
Still another phase of the work will be in making the family budget. More homes are wrecked, so statistics say, on the economic difficulties experienced than on any other ground. We would like to train our girls in making out family budgets whether the income of the home is to be $1000 or $10,000. We would like to teach them something of the values and weaknesses of the installment buying plan. We would like to inculcate a wholesome fear of debt. We wish to emphasize the value of regular and sacrificial saving.
It is the purpose of Agnes Scott to include in its Department of the Home instruc- tion as to beautifying the place where so much of the family life is spent. We would include courses in household decoration, in sanitation, in the simple elements of art and other related subjects. We would like also to include some elementary training in the making of flower and vegetable gardens and the value of such in the training of young people.
No college or university in this country has any such department as we are planning. We believe that it would prove to be of untold value, not merely to those who might come to Agnes Scott as students but to young people throughout the country, many of whom perhaps may never have the privilege of going to any college. If we can de- velop such principles and ways of doing things, other groups and other individuals will surely benefit by our work. Only in an institution where the whole experiment can be carried on under the auspices of Christian faith and simple religious life can there be hope for a well-rounded and fully developed type of training.
In order to establish this Department, there ought to be a building into which may be gathered the various materials necessary for the working out of the different points of emphasis, and it will be necessary for the Department to be well endowed so as to help in securing extraordinary teachers and instructors for the work.
We feel that the time is at hand when this Department ought to be put into operation. We are fully convinced that the time is ripe for such training. The only essential is to find some individual or individuals who can vision the value and importance of such a project and will help us to make it a reality.
A CRITIQUE OF OUR COLLEGES
Richard A. Lester
Department of Economics, Princeton University
(Published here through the courtesy of The American Scholar,
Phi Beta Kappa publication.)
A Carnegie Foundation report, issued in the spring of 1933, condemned the lack of cooperation and the unnecessary duplication existing between educational units in this country. At the same time an entire issue of the journal of Higher Education was de- voted to the need of coordination in higher education and to the methods by which that could be accomplished. In the leading article Samuel P. Capen, Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Buffalo, stated that our colleges and universities are more autonomous and self-contained than such educational institutions anywhere else in the world with the re- sult that American educational history of the past three decades is filled with "the con- flicts, the wasteful duplications, the indefensible compromises, and the narrow pro- vincialisms" which are as familiar as they are unnecessary. To Chancellor Capen the waste of such needless duplication is so enormous as to constitute "an incomparable chal- lenge" to leaders of education in this country.
The Yale School of Law and the Harvard School of Business Administration are at- tempting to meet that challenge and to initiate a much-needed reform in intercollegiate relationships. A four-year course in law and business, one year at Harvard and three at Yale, was announced and hailed as a "new departure," the "first course of its kind in the country," and a "novel experiment in American education." That it should be so excep- tional for colleges and universities in this country to cooperate instead of to duplicate in matters educational is shocking, and surely is as much an indictment as a challenge. American business may merge, combine, and intertwine, have subsidiaries, affiliates, and interlocking directorates, but American colleges and universities still exist, like that well- known mythological character, the rugged individual, in a state of splendid isolation.
Of course our colleges have some connections with each other. There are intercol- legiate athletic contests and debates and, now and again, outside professors are invited for a formal talk or Sunday services. It is rather strange though that the contacts be- tween our institutions of higher learning are chiefly athletic in nature. And even such athletic connections, like diplomatic relations between sovereign states, are severed every so often. Like sovereign states, certain of our colleges pursue a policy of non-recognition toward other institutions of higher education. Some of them refuse to give full credit for work successfully completed under another set' of instructors. Is it any wonder then that our colleges breed the blind loyalty, the 100 per-cent-ism, the smugness of small minds, so characteristic of small towns and isolated communities? We tell of the edu- cational value of travel in other countries; of how it broadens one's outlook to meet new people, visit new places, think new thoughts, and do different things. Yet travel between our colleges is confined chiefly to those undergraduates who, to use the ver- nacular, don't make the grade. Though in Germany it is the exceptional student who has not been to at least three different universities while many have been to six or eight, here, if an undergraduate mentioned that he had been to three universities, the listener would surely conclude that he had been "kicked out" of the first two.
In fact the powers-that-be in and around our colleges frown upon transferring. One is supposed to select his college as he does his wife, for life. The prospective freshman is supposed to fall in love with but one alma mater and to remain true to her the rest of his college years — yes, even until the day he draws up his will. If after a year or two said undergrad feels that love has changed, but not to kindness toward certain of his professors, and he wishes to try out a new batch of them he probably cannot do so
10 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
without losing certain accumulated "credits," and therefore instead of transferring he remains, under protest so to speak, at alma mater number one.
Nor is it much easier for graduate students to transfer. The same smug attitude that permeates the undergraduate college pervades the graduate schools. Princeton, Yale, and a number of other colleges, by written and unwritten rules and policies, favor their own alumni. Princeton graduates can obtain a master's degree with another year of study at Princeton whereas "outsiders," graduates of other colleges, must either spend two years at Princeton in order to add M.A. to their signatures or they must pass the de- partmental comprehensive examinations given to Princeton seniors, comprehensive exams based on undergraduate courses taught at Princeton. So to favor the home-college product is to put a premium on complacency and to encourage an inbreeding of ideas.
All the conditions and traditions of American colleges stimulate what might be called intellectual incest. It is, for example, a good old American custom that offspring attend the alma mater the parent once graced or disgraced with his or her presence. There have been cases, so I have been told (undoubtedly in jest), where college entrance applications were filed before the birth certificate. Need one point out the dangers in such mores? Not only is the son, from the time he learns the meaning of the word economics, impreg- nated with the Taussigian variety which his Harvardian father received first-hand from the founder but throughout his college course he will be asked to gulp down, and regurgi- tate for grading purposes, the contents of Taussig's two-volume magnum opus. Much the same conditions exist in other colleges in this country all the way down the alphabet from Akron University to Yale. In many departments in almost every one of our uni- versities the dead or retired hand of an outstanding personality still forces young minds into certain channels of thought and vision, outlook and opinion. After half a century "Sumnerology" still holds sway at Yale and for nearly thirty years the various editions of Fetter's textbook in economics introduced the Princeton product to that complicated subject.
I am not contending, not here anyhow, that the products of those brilliant minds have become outmoded, that time has left their intellectual efforts high and dry like the hulks of wrecked ships on the seashore. I likewise realize that it is only natural for professors who write textbooks to see to it that their books are adopted by their institu- tions and used not only in their own courses but in courses given by their colleagues or by their disciples in other institutions. My complaint is not a personal one. Rather it is directed at certain quite general conditions and traditions that make for intellectual in- breeding and mental dependence in the colleges of this country. I realize that professors, despite popular opinion to the contrary, are quite human. It is only natural for them to try to convert the student to their own opinions and beliefs and to demand that he know the textbook and their lectures "cold." Bertrand Russell once said: "The essence of education (as we know it) is a change, other than death, effected in an organism to satisfy the desires of the operator." I likewise realize that the head of a department in building up his staff — the departmental "farmer-in-the-dell" — will choose those whose ideas on the subject agree with his own and that he will most certainly give his former students preference. He knows them and knows that they are well trained — he did the job himself. All this is to be expected.
I am not asking that professors be as objective as joke-book judges or that they change their opinions and theories each day as they change their clothes. Nor am I alarmed be- cause the social sciences, like religion and literary criticism, are divided into sects and schools of thought. A variety of opinion is a healthy sign. The unhealthy part of it all is that the student, confined to one university and a hand-picked staff of instructors in each department, does not get an opportunity to understand and appreciate the many and various schools of thought in the fields in which he is especially interested. Although
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 11
it may be easier to ask and to correct quiz questions when students are dogmatically given but one point of view, nevertheless interest is whetted and independent judgment de- veloped by controversy and a clash of opinion rather than by an absorb-it-or-flunk in- struction.
In my opinion the educational opportunities offered by the colleges of this country have often been unduly restricted. To be more explicit on this point I shall take my own case although the experience of many others would do just as well. From my under- graduate study at Yale I was led to believe that the definitions and economic "laws" italicised in the textbook which I as a sophomore memorized for the ten-minute quizzes were just about the last word in economic "science"; that they were quite universally accepted by enlightened minds. In fact, as candidates for the Yale sheepskin we were convinced that our economics professors "knew their stuff cold" and the professors themselves seemed inclined to agree with us. Much to my surprise soon after receiving my brand-new twenty-dollar degree I learned that the very things which these pro- fessors seemed so sure about themselves they were ardently arguing with equally well- known professors in those scientific magazines that cost $1.25 or so an issue. Had I not continued my studies at Princeton I probably should never have discovered that the well- dressed young man there learns quite different definitions and economic laws and that students at Columbia and New York University are exposed to a still different brand of economics, not to mention the more radical varieties like socialism, communism, and technocracy. In fact there are as many schools of economics as there are of psychology, but I never suspected it until Yale "graduated" me. As for my classmates, I feel sure that most of them will go the way of all flesh without even knowing how specialized their courses in economics really were.
Our colleges prescribe required courses. Undergraduates must select a certain num- ber of hours from certain groups of subjects — all this in order that the student won't overspecialize and receive a one-sided training. Yet with such caution to prevent lop- sidedness what happens? Not only is a lump of Latin sandwiched in between a couple of slices of Shakespeare, not only is this departmentalized subject matter seldom well masticated and thoroughly digested, but the slices of Shakespeare, for example, are always served by the same professor or one of his group of disciples. It is as though one were limited to a single kind of bread, whole-wheat or rye, but not both.
Variety may be the spice of college life, but it is the lack of such variety that goes a long way toward making college education so dull and unsavory. To have had for one whole year, for two whole years, yes, even for three whole years the same sociology pro- fessor or the same system of sociological dogma drilled into one by constant reiteration and examination, is to have learned from bitter experience the full import of the doc- trine of diminishing returns.
For intellectual stimulation and growth some sort of exchange of ideas and change of personalities is necessary. Either the professors or the students should be constantly shifting their bases of operation. Here in this country neither circulate to any extent and intellectual stagnation and mental lop-sidedness are often the result. What our colleges need is some sort of a medium of exchange of students or professors. On the continent each semester sees a flock of new faces at every university. Where the universities are all owned by the state a high velocity of circulation of students between institutions causes no difficulties and no loss of precious credits by those that transfer. Here in this country where most of the colleges and universities are privately owned, free trade in students and professors would be harder to accomplish, although such cooperation between our colleges should not be impossible. We have specialization and exchange in other lines — why not in college? If a student wants to study under two well-known profes- sors in two different universities why can't it be so arranged that he can do so without
12 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
being penalized for having such a worthy desire? If he wants to go to Princeton and also to take courses in sociology and anthropology, subjects not to be found in the Prince- ton catalogue, why shouldn't he, and still graduate with his class?
At present there is probably more swapping of professors and students between the colleges of this country and colleges in foreign countries than between the various col- leges within this country. We have visiting professors and visiting scholarships but the visitors, except in summer sessions, usually bring passports and visas with them. Why not develop the domestic market?
There is another phase of this matter which should not be overlooked. In Europe, where students change universities more often and for more respected reasons, impartial outsiders are in many cases called in to give the final-degree examinations. But in this country the professor decides what he shall teach, how he shall teach, and by what tests he shall prove whether he has taught his subject well and whether the student is educated in that field. Here, if a student criticises the professor's doctrines and beliefs, the pro- fessor himself determines whether that criticism is valid, whether in order to pass the course the student must thoroughly learn something which seems to that student false. In this case the professor is the person who made the fundamental law italicized in his textbook (oddly enough revised every few years) ; he is the accused; and he is the judge who determines whether the accusation is valid and passes out the sentence, putting the student in his proper place in the curve of normal distribution. If he flunks the student there is no appeal. His judgment is final. This means that college students in this coun- try must concentrate just as much on the professor as on the subject. Education becomes partly a question of personalities, previous reputation, and resignation. That is true to some extent the world over, but whether students remain for four years in the same college with the same group of professors doing the professing and the examining, more and more emphasis is put upon knowing the professor instead of upon knowing the sub- ject in all of its phases rather than just those in which the professor himself is especially interested. Petty incidentals and personalities play a part all out of proportion to their general importance.
All this points to the need for cooperation between the colleges of this country if our college students are to receive a broad, well-balanced training, a proper perspective in- stead of a knot-hole view of things. Such intercollegiate cooperation need not be on a national or regional basis, or elaborately planned, but it certainly is needed.
Every year some American undergraduates spend their junior year in Germany and return to their colleges in this country as seniors. Why couldn't the same sort of ar- rangement be made between some of the colleges within this vast and varied country of ours? Why couldn't arrangements be made for Stanford or Princeton undergraduates to spend their junior year at Yale and vice versa} If the college powers-that-be in this country only had the will to promote such an exchange there are many ways by which it could be accomplished. And I assure them that the mental vigor and added educational opportunities resulting from such cooperation between their institutions would be well worth the slight trouble that the bookkeepers in the dean's offices might be put to. Whether such a scheme would have as wholesome an effect on college athletics and fra- ternities as on the educational aspect of college life I leave for the reader to decide.
PHI BETA KAPPA PROSPECTS AT CHICAGO UNDER
THE NEW PLAN
C. S. Boucher Dean of the College
(Published here through the courtesy of The American Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa publication.)
Among high-school and college educators greater emphasis, in rapidly increasing amounts, is being placed upon substance as contrasted with forms. This is evidenced by the very significant programs and activities of the Progressive Education Association's Commission on the Relation of School and College, the Educational Records Bureau, the Cooperative Test Service, the Study of the Relations of Secondary and Higher Education in Pennsylvania, the Every-Pupil Contest of the University of Iowa in the high schools of the State, the Committee on Revision of Standards of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association, the report on Comprehensive Examinations in American Colleges by Edward S. Jones for the Association of American Colleges, and the New Plan of the University of Chicago — to mention only a few of the most outstanding of such programs and activities.
In the Pennsylvania Study not a few instances were discovered such as the following: on a comprehensive objective examination given to seniors a young woman, about to receive her degree magna cum laude, scored fifth from the bottom in a class of forty- eight in her institution and in the lowest 10 per cent for the state; after reviewing the case the examiner at the institution reported that the girl was an ambitious credit-hunter, extremely eager to satisfy her teachers, and had received high marks term by term, al- though his inspection showed that her courses were mainly those for which credit was notoriously easy to get; she was tractable, of pleasant personality, very religious, and ap- parently had put the faculty completely under a spell as to the validity of her intellectual activities.
Under our old plan of measuring the student's progress in terms of course credits and grade points based on course marks — a plan still almost universally employed by the colleges of this country — not a few students were elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago because they judiciously elected "pipe" courses given by faculty members who were notoriously "easy" or high markers and courses by some other faculty members who marked not on genuine intellectual achievement alone but rather more than less on pleasantness of personality, faithfulness, promptness, neatness, and complete con- formity in routine. Such factors still enter too frequently and too prominently into the award of high marks and thus the award of the Phi Beta Kappa key in too many colleges.
I do not wish to be understood as belittling the importance and value of these traits. I merely raise the question whether the evaluation of such traits and characteristics should be merged and confused with the evaluation of genuine intellectual attainment in the award of course marks and Phi Beta Kappa. I believe that it is important to have the eval- uation of such traits and characteristics filed regularly for each student by each of his instructors and entered in the student's personnel case history, but distinct from and not confused with the record of student's academic intellectual progress and attainments. We have endeavored to design and administer our New Plan at the University of Chicago in such a manner.
Distinguishing features of the new plan, inaugurated in the autumn of 1931, for an entering freshman class are the following: the Bachelor's degree requirements are stated almost solely in terms of educational attainments measured by two sets of comprehensive examinations, one set at the junior-college level to test general education primarily, and the other set at the senior-college level primarily to test depth of penetration and mastery of a large yet special field of thought selected by the student, each set of examinations to
14 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
be taken by the student whenever he thinks he is adequately prepared, regardless of how many courses he has pursued or the length of time he has been in residence; the old time- serving routine requirements in terms of course credits and grade points have been abandoned; class attendance is voluntary on the part of the student; the relationship be- tween student and professor has been completely changed by divorce of the examination function (which has been placed in the control of the Board of Examinations) from the instructional function; four new courses, a year course in each of four large fields of thought — the biological sciences, the humanities, the physical sciences, and the social sciences — have been specially designed to serve the general-education needs of the student, with a wide variety of instructional methods carefully selected and proportioned in the light of the educational objectives to be attained; a carefully prepared syllabus with ap- propriate bibliographical citations for each course at the junior-college level is available for each student; a faculty adviser, who is selected for each student in the light of educa- tional needs and ambitions, takes his responsibilities seriously and is ready at all times to play the role of guide, counselor, and friend but never that of policeman or nurse- maid; the term "College" has been limited to the new junior-college program; and the senior-college program has been merged with the programs of the upper divisions and professional schools. Students above the junior-college level are called divisional or pro- fessional-school students.
One of the essay questions, to which sixty minutes were allotted, in the June, 193 3, Humanities comprehensive examination, was the following:
"Give a brief but adequate summary of the civilization of the Hellenistic period ac- cording to the plan suggested in the first diagram given you (in the syllabus) ; that is, sketch in first the political and economic background, then characterize successively the various forms of thought (philosophy, science, religion) and expression (literature, sculp- ture, painting, and architecture) . You are expected to make general statements, but also to substantiate them by reference to definite names of persons and places, dates, works, and accomplishments. Try to spend at least ten minutes in marshalling your facts and planning your organization. Organization and presentation as well as factual material will be taken into consideration by the readers."
After the examination papers were scored by the readers some of the best and some of the poorest were read by three instructors in the Introductory General Course in the Humanities merely for their own enlightenment on how students performed on the com- prehensive examination in their field. These instructors agreed in the judgment that any one of three of the best answers written by freshmen to the question quoted above could be substituted for chapters or sections on this topic in not a few widely used text- books with a resulting improvement of the text-books in factual and thought content, organization, and literary style.
Last March we were in the midst of a fervid debate over the relative importance of facts and ideas in various fields of intellectual endeavor. This debate, precipitated by a convocation address by President Hutchins in December, drew the entire university community into participation. For three months the student paper, The Daily Maroon, ran an almost continuous series of editorials and communications, ringing the changes on the theme, to such an extent that the factual and thought content and the instruc- tional methods of courses and the comprehensive examinations of virtually every de- partmental and visional field were searchingly and critically discussed. Even though not a few of the Maroon criticisms were unfounded in fact or unwarranted in basic concept, many were in point and all together constituted a worthy contribution to the intellectual life of the community because students and faculty alike devoted more critical thought in an articulate manner to all phases of the subject — education — than the present writer has ever known to be true of any other college or university community in a generation.
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 15
One debate over this question of ideas versus facts, between two faculty members, ar- ranged by an undergraduate group (self-started and self-propelled for the discussion of problems in biology), and scheduled originally in a class room seating 3 50 had to be moved to a hall seating 15 00, so great was the demand for tickets, and even this lecture hall was not half large enough to seat those who desired to hear the debate. Many small groups of students have discussed the question for many hours. One such group — an- other self-started and self-propelled group — organized two years ago by students pri- marily interested in the social sciences, at one stage of their discussion recently asked a professor of physics to meet with them and discuss the inductive and the deductive methods of work as used by physical scientists in order that these social-science students might compare and contrast methods of work in the two fields. The professor of physics later told me that it was one of the most interesting and stimulating discussions in which he had ever been privileged to participate or to which he had ever listened.
In the design of our new plan we endeavored to give students greater encouragement and to confront them with an increased necessity to do more independent work and to read more books with greater profit. But none of us dreamed that in so short a time freshmen and sophomores could be brought to read so much or so intelligently. We early learned that our major library problem was not to get the students to use the books but to supply enough seating capacity in the reading rooms, enough books, and enough service for the withdrawal of books. During the current year we have had a daily circulation of over a thousand volumes of books used only in the Humanities course and in the first and second year Social Science courses; and the reading in these volumes is in addition to rather heavy text assignments in one course and large amounts of in- dispensable readings in each of the other two courses in a set of several volumes rented to each student for the academic year.
A part of the on-going program of each of the four introductory general courses is the organization of several types of special sections: honors sections open to superior stu- dents by invitation; special interest sections open to any student who has a burning de- sire to pursue the particular phase of the field announced for the particular special sec- tion farther than is provided by the regular program of the syllabus; and trailer training sections for students who need additional assistance. These sections are in addition to the regularly scheduled discussion sections and are on a voluntary basis. In the Humanities course special interest sections are offered in literature, in philosophy, in religion, and in fine arts. Last autumn when a member of the Humanities staff announced the special interest section for the field of literature, hoping to attract about twenty students, he was nonplussed when at the first meeting he found approximately a hundred students — twice as many as there were seats in the room. In spite of the fact that he gave them his assur- ance "as a gentleman and a scholar" that he would not attempt in any way so to con- duct the program of the section that it would be of any direct assistance to any student in passing the Humanities comprehensive examination, and in spite of the fact that he announced a qualifying examination to be given a week thence to eliminate those not genuinely in earnest in their expressed desire to pursue the study of literature solely for its own sake, he succeeded in cutting the number of the group no more than half. Even with a group too large for the plan of procedure originally contemplated, the program as modified by necessity attained most gratifying results.
In the program of the Introductory General Course in the Biological Sciences there is no provision for individual manipulatory laboratory work on the part of the students. The object of the course is not to train botanists or zoologists or physiologists or bac- teriologists but to give a general education for freshmen and sophomores, at least three- fourths of whom will never pursue any more formalized instruction in biology. The objects of the course are: (1) to cultivate the scientific attitude of mind through re-
16 The Agnes Scott Alu mnae Quarterly
peated illustrations of the scientific method of attack upon nature's problem; (2) to im- plant such practical information about biology as is desirable for a citizen in the modern world; (3) to awaken interest in the impressive machinery of the organic world and in the major concepts of biology. Many of the lectures are laboratory demonstration lec- tures. On approximately half of the Monday and Tuesday afternoons through the year, special laboratory demonstration experiments and exhibits, so arranged that students in- dividually and in small groups may have opportunity to examine, observe, and con- template at close range and in an unhurried manner many illustrative phenomena, are provided on the voluntary basis. Each exhibit and demonstration is given in the graduate research laboratory of the department concerned. In spite of inconveniences in time and place, more than seventy-five per cent of the class regularly take advantage of these special offerings.
The official Board examinations, offered on scheduled dates twice a year, are the only examinations required. None is required of either faculty or students in any course at any time by administrative regulations. Any type of test, quiz, or examination may be given in any course at any time, however, for instructional purposes, but not for mark- recording purposes. The official Board examinations are the only ones the results of which are made a matter of record in the registrar's office. Interestingly enough, in not a few courses students have asked that examinations be given more frequently than the in- structors thought necessary, to acquaint both students and instructors adequately with the rate and degree of progress being made by the students. In more than one instance at the end of the Autumn and Winter quarters, after several instructional tests have been given during the quarter upon the conclusion of logical units of work, it has been left to student vote to determine whether a final examination on the entire quarter's work should be given. In every such instance the students have asked for the examination, though they knew that the result would have no officially recorded effect upon their attainment of the junior-college certificate. They did know, however, that the ex- amination would be carefully corrected and returned, and would thus be valuable in their preparation for the official Board examination.
A student may take any one or more of the comprehensive examinations any time they are offered whether he has attended all or part or none of the sessions of the corre- sponding courses offered as year courses through the three regular quarters of the academic year to assist students in their preparation for examinations. Though most students attend courses through the entire academic year before taking the corresponding examinations, in the first calendar year that examinations were offered (June, 1932, to June, 1933, inclusive), 131 students took examinations after having attended corresponding courses only two of the three quarters, 62 after attending only one quarter, and 78 without at- tending. The letter grade proportions for the 271 students who took examinations be- fore completing the customary three quarters of the course were: A 14 per cent, B 30, C 36, D 12, and F 8; the proportions for the entire group taking examinations were A 9 per cent, B 18, C 41, D 18, F 15.
The proportion of high grades, A and B, was much higher for those students who took examinations without registering for the course or after only one quarter's at- tendance than for those who attended the full three quarters. The proportion of failures in, the faster group was only half the proportion of failures in the entire group. These facts plainly show that the superior students are taking advantage of the opportunities offered under the new plan. The important result is not merely that students may save time by completing the junior-college requirements in less than two years and the Bachelor's degree requirements in less than four years, but that students are encouraged to work "on their own" and are saved from perfunctory and routine repetition or boring and unnecessary review and are encouraged always to be engaged in work that challenges their capacity to the utmost.
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 17
Though we do not offer junior-college courses in the Summer quarter, last summer we had over a hundred students who came regularly each week to the College Library to withdraw books by the armful. Some of these students had failed one or more examina- tions in June and were preparing to take them again in September. A more significant group of considerable size, however, had passed a full quota of examinations in June and were "working up" new fields, without attending courses. Most of these students (from our best group) passed the examinations with distinction. One mother told me that after observing that her son and two of his friends had worked faithfully on the physical science field during part of June and all of July and August, preparing to take the exam- ination late in September without attending the course, she insisted that her son go with her to their camp in the northern woods for the first three weeks in September, prior to the examination. It was arranged that the two friends should join them two or three days later, after camp was put in order. She was astonished to observe, when she and her son met the two friends at the station many miles from camp, that the largest items of luggage were bundles of books brought in compliance with a conspiracy to avoid having their work interrupted by the vacation in unacademic surroundings.
Under the old plan, with required class attendance, most students seemed to think it necessary to take a standard number of "cuts" to preserve their self respect. Under the voluntary attendance plan the attendance at many classes has been better than under the old plan. More frequently than formerly students are visiting courses for which they are not registered. Attendance now seems to be in direct ratio with the extent to which the students think the class period profitable to them; there was no such correlation under the old plan when a course credit was at stake.
Though we have not raised our admission requirements, the new plan has produced a higher degree of self-selection among our applicants for admission as freshmen. Last year over 40 per cent of our entering freshmen ranked in the upper tenth of their graduating high-school classes and approximately two-thirds were in the highest quarter.
The first year of operation of the new plan in the upper divisions was 1933. Whether developments comparable to those reported in this paper for the lower division will fol- low in the upper divisions remains to be seen. Results to date, however, seem to indicate that our first crop of initiates to Phi Beta Kappa under the new plan will be more signific- antly selected and hence as a group will be more worthy members of the society than were many elected under the old plan on the course grade-point average.
* 1
SOCIAL TRENDS AND SOCIAL GOALS
Cleveland Zahner, ex '07
At the outset of this brief discussion, I wish to state that I am confining myself principally to that division of social work, which we call the relief of destitution, as distinguished from other classifications such as child welfare and medical social work.
Any phase of our modern life can be viewed in its entirety only if one looks at the subject historically. We understand our present and can work towards our future only in the light of our past. I shall, therefore, outline briefly the background of the relief for the destitute in America before I discuss the situation as it is today.
Colonial America modeled its laws for care of its poor upon those laws already exist- ing in England. In the thirteen original colonies and in the other states as those states were added to the Union, there were passed so-called "pauper laws," to use the termin- ology of the 17th and 18th centuries. Except in Louisiana, these poor laws are still in force today so that the basis of our laws, relating to public welfare, lies in the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601.
These "Pauper Laws" expressed the ideas of the English upper classes, the feeling that the destitute were in their condition of poverty because of their inferiority, and that their inability for self-maintenance was their own fault. This opprobrium still clings to those unfortunates in society who are the beneficiaries of public relief in some of our own counties today. Again, the English Poor Law firmly entrenched in American communi- ties the principle of "local responsibility," the belief that the local unit of government must with its own funds care for the poor having legal settlement in that unit. Tax funds for poor relief must be spent where collected. Our inheritance, therefore, was first this harsh and deterrent attitude towards these unfortunates who were forced to apply for poor relief and secondly, our inheritance was the settled conviction that only those were eligible for relief who had legal residence within our local boundaries.
In the years following the Napoleonic wars, due to the enormous numbers of per- sons in England who were receiving public aid and who were given this aid without discrimination as to need, Parliament passed The Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834. This act made illegal the granting of relief to the able-bodied poor outside of work houses. The conditions of these work houses were so horrible that few persons applied for this "indoor" relief. As a consequence, there were in England vast numbers of destitute men and women who were begging in the streets in preference to seeking public aid in the work houses. To offset this condition, an unheard of number of private charities sprang into being, some of which duplicated and overlapped others.
In America after the depressions of 1873 and 1893, somewhat the same development took place, though for a different reason. The powerful private agencies came into being in the East because graft in the administration of public relief funds was so deep- rooted and widespread that the rich and philanthropic, despairing of reform, founded and administered their own private charity organization societies. These societies grew and spread until in 1929, we had their counter-part in nearly all of our large urban centers.
For the past fifty years, also, side by side with those private agencies just mentioned which existed solely for the relief of destitution, there sprang up as needed by each com- munity, other private agencies for the care of dependent and neglected children, for the care of the aged, for medical and psychiatric social service, so that our large cities had on the one hand, the public agency administering relief under the old pauper laws in- herited directly from the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 and on the other hand, an un- organized multiplicity of privately-supported agencies.
While new agencies in the private field have thus been coming into being, another movement in the opposite direction has been noticeable. Attempts have been made by social workers to rationalize and coordinate these social agencies. Three such attempts are:
1. To extract from the Poor Law certain beneficiaries who suffered from destitution
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 19
due to certain disabilities and grant state aid to this class of persons. I refer here to Mothers' Pensions, Old Age Pensions, Blind Pensions.
2. Certain machinery set up by social workers themselves to regulate these many agencies. In the public field, such machinery are the various State Boards of Public Wel- fare. In general, the State Departments of Welfare have not been granted mandatory powers by the various state legislatures. They have had little authority and have thus been handicapped in their plans.
3. In the private field, we have, in many communities, Central Councils of Social Agencies and the Community Chests. In the same manner as the State Boards of Welfare, the Councils of Social Agencies in various communities have used the method of per- suasion and exchange of information in attempting to coordinate the various agencies and to set up uniform standards. Except in the field of the care of dependent children, not much progress has been made towards perfectly coordinated plans in the communi- ties. Unless Councils of Social Agencies are held together by the budget power of the chest, they are not very successful. Community chests having budget control have been able to exercise some powers of coordination.
This is the picture of social work presented by America when, in 1929, the storm broke. After a Herculean struggle to keep their heads above the oncoming tide of thousands of destitute families applying for aid because of unemployment, the private agencies found they could not carry the heavy burden. In spite of enormous amounts of money contributed by private individuals throughout the nation, there was not any- where near the amount of money needed. First the state governments and then the Federal government were forced to enter the relief field on an unheard of scale. Since the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 193 3, we have had set up in each state in the Union and in almost every county in each state, Federal Relief Administrators to care for the unemployed in that county. Thus overnight almost a vast machinery has come into being, nationally-controlled and in most instances, nationally-subsidized. In some states and counties as in our own Fulton County, for instance, the Federal Government has combined its forces with the county and city to form one agency to care for all types of the destitute, except those persons already under care of the private agencies. In other counties, the Federal Relief Administration is separate from any county relief unit which is administered by county officials. In most small communities there are no private agencies, so that the public agencies carry the entire load.
To summarize at this point, we see that public relief was the first form of relief for the destitute, that it has had an unbroken continuity down to the present time and that except in large cities where private agencies flourished, it was the one form of relief existing.
Now what of the future? Will the public agencies gradually recede from the picture and leave the relief of destitution to the private? Some figures, I think, will assist us in answering this question. In May of this year, Detroit made a study of 4,000 families in its unemployment load. These families were divided into two groups: (1) Those with a favorable prognosis; that is, the wage-earner was not handicapped, physically or mentally, to resume work and the industry or business, with which he was formerly connected, would re-employ him, should conditions improve. (2) Those families with unfavorable prognosis; that is, the normal wage-earner was either handicapped in some way or his former employer was bankrupt. The figures follow: Prognosis favorable, 15 per cent; doubtful, 15-20 per cent; unfavorable, 65 per cent.
Some Chicago statistics will show how large the employment load is in comparison with the load the private agencies carried: United Charities, Chicago, June 1930 — 1633 total families on relief; United Charities, Chicago, June, 193 3 — 4016 total families on relief; United Charities, peak of unemployment — 10,000 families on relief; unemployment relief — 220,000 families on relief.
As you can readily see, the number of persons needing assistance, who will continue to
20 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
need assistance for some time to come, is so large that we must not expect the private agencies to assume this load. Furthermore, will they be financially able to assume the burden?
In 151 Chest cities in America, statistics show that the money collected for private charities in 1933 was 17.5 per cent less than that collected in 1932, and the amount col- lected in 1932 was 22 per cent less than in 1931. We account for this decrease, in the first place, by saying that many persons who contributed to private charity in the past, no longer have the financial ability to do so, and secondly, by realizing that the public at large, is more and more assuming that the relief of destitution is a real function of the government, just as education has long been.
And why should not the welfare of its unfortunate citizens be the prime aim of government as well as the well-being of those who have resources of self-maintenance? And in order to realize this aim, why should we not have a Federal Department of Public Welfare, or Public Assistance, to use the newer term?
For the past 50 years, the power of the individual States has been constantly declining, just as that of the Federal Government has been increasing. For most purposes, State boundaries do not exist. Certainly as far as business, personal and private, is concerned, they do not. Only in the field of politics do State boundaries count at all. In the past as voters clamored for better schools, for better roads, (and at the same time did not want higher taxes), the States welcomed Federal subsidies, for those two purposes. To the Federal Government the States owe their success in regard to vocational education and highways.
By means of these grants-in-aid to States, the Federal Government can demand uni- form standards of social work, and can require that relief be administered by qualified and trained personnel. This requirement is being met now under the Federal Agency Act of 1933. Today, under this act, temporary and emergent though it be, we find in out-of-the-way rural counties some attempt to dispense relief under modern standards. A uniform system, under uniform laws. No longer, as a consequence, will the unfortunate in the larger cities have adequate care, while the poor of the small communities be dealt with as if they were living three hundred years ago!
We have, therefore, enough precedent for our goal of a permanent Federal Depart- ment of Public Assistance, with svibsidies to States, based on need.
Along with this development will go uniform state laws, relating to problems of welfare. One illustration, only, I shall mention here. Under the old English system of "local responsibility," the non-resident has no claim to any local aid. Under the present State laws of settlement, a man who moves into one State may lose his legal residence in his own State, before he can become a citizen in another. Until the Federal Transient Bureaus were formed a little over a year ago and even today in places where these Tran- sient Bureaus do not exist, the non-resident is battered about between one local unit and another, neither one wishing to spend any of their own tax-payers' money on him. As a step towards national laws of public welfare, we should abolish our old Poor Laws and with them the old idea of "local responsibility," adopting uniform settlement laws throughout the nation.
Under the old system of "laissez-faire" we shut our eyes to the havoc our industrial era wrought in the lives of our fellow citizens. Now that we realize that society and government are responsible for the welfare of all, we must plan for those persons whom industry has thrown permanently out of employment, through no fault of their own. This means old age pensions, the Federal Government, to reiterate, matching its funds with State funds. It will also mean some sort of unemployment insurance in order to give security to those who labor constantly under the shadow of technological and seasonal unemployment.
What I have outlined here so briefly and so inadequately is not new — all these thoughts are already in the air. Shall we not do our best to work forward to these goals? Only thus shall "the charity of today be the justice of tomorrow!"
MARIAN (McCAMY) SIMS
Irene Lowrance, '28
Marian McCamy was born in Dalton, Ga. On the maternal side of her family she was of New England descent, and she says "the mixture of a New England conscience and Southern lethargy has run her ragged all her life."
She came to Agnes Scott in 1916. Those who "knew-her-when" well remember her vivid personality in the particular activities of basketball and Blackfriars. In those days she says she "looked with reverential awe at any sort of literary activity." In fact, she went so far as to fail an English 1 1 exam under Miss McKinney, because she had "no love or appreciation for English literature"!
After graduation Marian taught History and French for two years in the high school in Dalton. The following year she taught in LaGrange. But "schoolmarming" was prov- ing too nerve-racking, so she went to Wisconsin on a visit and accidentally got a new job, — with an advertising firm. She wrote direct mail advertisements, folders, letters, etc, — for syndication. Marian's cleverness and versatility were well exhibited in this field of livelihood. During the three years she worked for this company she said that she wrote for sixty or more different businesses, — drycleaners, druggists, florists, even osteopaths! (Recently she walked into a local osteopathic clinic and found on the office table some "educational literature" that she had written several years ago. Imagine walking into a strange place and meeting yourself disguised like that!) This job was fine experience, because, as Marian said, it got her into the habit-of-writing; and, it seems, that "the habit," or routine of handling words, is the first requisite for an author.
When asked how she happened to take up fiction writing, Marian said that she had always intended doing something to justify her existence, and story writing was the one thing she hadn't tried, and therefore, the one thing she didn't know she couldn't do.
In 1927 she was married to Mr. Frank K. Sims, Jr., a young attorney, and moved to Greensboro, N. C. She did not know many people here, and had "time" on her hands, so she began to write. Shortly afterward, she and Mr. Sims moved to Charlotte; she con- tinued her fiction writing in earnest. For four years she "struggled without a break." The short stories (and the novel) were re-written, re- vised, and still re-jected. In the meantime, Marian had acquired an agent. (Next to "the habit-of-writing," an agent appears to be the most important factor.) This agent was very temperamental; at first, she was most enthusiastic and encouraging, advising this be rewritten and that be revised; then suddenly she lost interest and decided she "wouldn't care to handle Mrs. Sims' material." Such are the struggles of the rising author!
In 1932 Marian won the North Carolina Short Story Contest, which is sponsored each year by the Charlotte Writers Club, with her story, Roman Candles. Mr. Struthers Burt, well-known writer of Southern Pines, was one of the judges for this contest. He and his wife, Catherine Newlin Burt, who is a novelist of some note, were interested in Marian; they met her and spoke encouragingly of her work. They gave her some tips on the fiction market. Mr. Burt helped her secure another literary agent, and from then on, Marian was on the "up and up." Within a few weeks she sold stories (which her former agent had decided were unmarketable) to Home Magazine, Colliers Weekly, and Saturday Evening Post. However, all was not "easy sale-ing"; oh, no; the revisions and rejections still went on; but the "contact" had been made and Marain was "taking off" for Success. She had hitched her wagon (pardon me, for mixing my metaphors!) to a star, — The Morning Star, — and was riding high.
And she still is. Soon she will have stories published in McCall's Magazine and in the Pictorial Review, and, she confides, there is also to be another novel.
Morning Star, as the inside of its cover will tell you, is "one of the most fascinating romances of the year." It is light reading. (Marian declares she's too informal to
22 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
write otherwise.) The scene is Southern; not the Southern atmosphere that is cloyingly sentimental, nor that which is disgustingly morbid, but just the honest-to-goodness folksey South.
All Agnes Scotters will be genuinely thrilled to read the paragraphs which describe Emily's (the heroine's) college days at Ardmore College. Every former freshman will join her in reminiscing over that first year . . . "the routine of college; swiftly passing days of study; nights of soft beauty on the campus, when the moon silvered the roofs and etched the tower of Main in dark grace against the sky."
And all ex-seniors will feel a warming in the "cockles of their hearts" when they read of Emily's pleasure in recalling the milestones of her senior year. Marian has written these pages in the second person; she is sharing with each Hottentot the sacred traditions and rituals of Agnes Scott.
Perhaps you're curious about the title and how it came to be Morning Star. Marian explains it this way: she and Mr. Sims were passing a negro church and decided to go in to listen to the services and music. Two little negro girls were singing a duet:
"7 got a mother in Glory Land, She fixed her eye on the Morning Star. Dont let nothing turn you 'round . . ."
and Marian immediately put the negro spiritual right into her novel and it made a lovely, shining title for her book.
PASTELS
From the October, 1934, Ladies' Home Journal
How dull they lie in their dusty bins
Like colorless virtues or drab little sins,
But spread on a canvas their pigments gleam
With the luster of life and the tissue of dream.
How didl life's recurring, monotonous days
If there's not any ardor to color its ivays.
But once love has touched these eveyday things
Duty has glamour and hours have wings.
Leonora (Owsley) Herman, Institute.
Miss Florence Smith attended the con- vention of Phi Beta Kappa in Cincinnati in August.
Miss Elizabeth Jackson spent the month of June touring the Province of Quebec. After that, she spent a very quiet sum- mer at home with her parents in South Weymouth, Mass.
Miss Emma May Laney and Dr. Philip Davidson were on the faculty of Hunter College in New York City. Miss Laney also spent part of the summer at Chautauqua, N. Y.
Miss Harriet te Haynes, Bee Miller, '30, and Carrie Scandrett, '24, spent a week together in New York, after which Miss Haynes sailed for Austria where she stud- ied dancing.
Miss Emily Dexter spent the summer in Wisconsin.
Mrs. Alma Sydenstricker was at Chau- tauqua, studying in the Department of Re- ligious Education.
Miss Melissa Cilley studied in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Miss Edna Ruth Hanley received her Master's Degree in Library Science at the University of Michigan in June. She spent part of the summer in Canada.
Miss Leslie Gaylord studied in Michigan.
Dr. Mary F. Sweet and Miss Louise Mc- Kinney visited High Hampton Inn, Cash- iers and Highlands, N. C.
Dr. Arthur Raper toured the southern states to observe the effects of the New Deal on the white and negro laborer. Dr. Raper also conducted a ten day camp in the mountains of North Carolina.
Miss Anna May Baker, formerly connect- ed with the Mathematics Department, is now head of the F. E. R. A. in Orange, Virginia.
Miss Roberta Hollingsworth, former Spanish teacher, is now Dean of Women of the University of Virginia. Miss Hollings- worth also runs a tea room on the Univer- sity campus.
Miss Florence Edler, who was a member of the History Department formerly, sail- ed on September the twenty-sixth for Brus- sels, where she will study on a C. R. B. fellowship.
New faculty members this session in- clude: Dr. T. W. Whitaker in the Depart- ment of Biology, to fill the vacancy left by
Miss Mary Westall; Nancy Rogers, '34, as a member of the Biology Department; Thelma Richmond, '33, as a member of the French faculty; Margaret Bell, '33 as Sec- retary to Miss Hopkins; Nelle Chamblee, '34, in charge of the college book store; Miss Emilie Thomas, as an addition to the staff of the Infirmary; Elinor Hamilton, '34, as Field Alumnae Secretary; Ellen Douglas Leyburn, '27, as a member of the English faculty; Polly Vaughan, '34, as a i fellow in Spoken English; Eugenie Dozier, '27, as a member of the Physical Educa- tion Department.
Miss Annie May Christie has returned to the English faculty.
Dr. and Mrs. McCain spent part of the summer with his family in Due West, S. C.
Miss Hopkins spent the summer with her family in Staunton, Va.
Miss Lillian Smith spent most of the summer in Syracuse, N. Y. with her niece, Dorothea Keeney, Academy.
Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Dieckmann spent the summer at the University of Georgia in Athens, where Mr. Dieckmann was a mem- ber of the summer music faculty.
Miss Mary Stuart MacDougall spent the summer in France, where she continued her research work.
Dr. and Mrs. Hem*y Robinson spent the summer at their home in the mountains of N. C.
Miss Catherine Torrance went to Cleve- land in August for the marriage of her niece, Mary Frances Torrance, '33.
Miss Muriel Harn spent the summer at home in Baltimore, Maryland with her family.
Miss Frances Gooch went to the North Cape during the summer.
Miss Leslie Gaylord spent part of the summer in Winchester, Va. with her fam- ily. She is now living in an apartment in Decatur.
Miss Katherine Omwake spent the sum- mer with her family in Washington, D. C.
Gwendeline Miller spent the summer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with her family. She enjoyed a visit from Andrewena Rob- inson, '32, during which time they went to the World's Fair.
Miss Louise Lewis spent part of the sum- mer with relatives in Alabama.
What Is the NRA? is an interesting booklet to be used for study and discus- sion. Copies may be procured from the Superintendent of Documents, Washing- ton, D. C, for five cents a copy. It is highly recommended for alumnae who wish to be well informed on the aims, methods and accomplishments of the National Re- covery Administration.
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The A. A. U. W. has requested that the following information be given Agnes Scott alumnae: All applications and recom- mendations for fellowships from the Amer- ican Association of University Women must reach the secretary of the Commit- tee on Fellowship Awards, 1634 I Street, N. W., Washington, D. C, not later than December 1, 1934, and should be accompan- ied by a transcript of record of graduate or undergraduate work, a certificate from the registrar of the college or university awarding the degree or degrees received by the applicant, testimonials as to charac- ter, theses or papers or reports of investi- gation, a health certificate, and a small recent photograph.
The Lecture Association is happy to an- nounce a lecture on November 23 by Edna St. Vincent Millay at the College. The single admission tickets for this are $1.00 for reserved seats, and 75c for general ad- mission.
The Class of 1935, 77 in all, will be in- vested with caps and gowns on Saturday, November 3.
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The Annual Stunts were presented by the classes of '37 and '38 on October the thirteenth. The traditional Black Cat was belled with the designation, "Awarded to the class of '37."
Blackfriars will present one of George Bernard Shaw's Plays on November 17. The male parts will be taken by local men, interested in these dramatic productions.
A Word About Our Contributors: Irene Lowrance, '28, took an active part in Black- riars during her college career. This in- terest she has continued in her work with the Little Theater of Charlotte, N. C. Irene is Editor of the Curtain Call, publication for this group. On the business side, Irene is now teaching Latin in Charlotte. Cleve- land Zahner, ex-'07, is a graduate of Rad- cliffe, having attended Agnes Scott — then Agnes Scott Institute — from 1903 through 1905. She has long been interested in the work of the Crippled Children's Home in Atlanta. At present, as one would guess from her splendid article, she is connected with the Fulton County Relief Administra- tion. Her article is believed to be of peculiar interest at this time, since so many Agnes Scotters have gone into this field.
* * * *
5,600 Pledges have been paid in full to date. $82,000 was received during the year as payment toward these pledges; on the basis of our collections the College col- lected $41,000 from the General Educa- tion Board.
* * * *
31 1934 Granddaughters is the record of this club this session. They are: Harriet Dimmock, '35, daughter of Edith Lott, ex-'09; Clara Morrison, '35, and Margaret Morrison, '38, daughters of Louise Read, Academy; Alberta Palmour, '35, daughter of Mary Crenshaw, Institute; Martha Red- wine, '35, daughter of Lucy Reagan, '10; Susan Turner, '35, daughter of Annie Dow- dell, '02; Mary Adams, '36, daughter of Bertha Thomas, Institute; Mary Hender- son, '36, daughter of Ruth Home, Acad- emy; Frances McCully, '36, daughter of
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
33
Margaret Lilla Wilson, Institute; Elizabeth Forman, '36; daughter of Mary Dortch, Institute; Loraine Smith, '36, daughter of Edith Farlinger, ex-'lO; Lucile Cairns, '37, daughter of Lucile Colclough, Institute; Fannie B. Harris, '37, daughter of Lillie Bell Bachman, ex-'09; Dorothy Lee, '37, daughter of Clara Rusk, Institute; Ora Muse, daughter of Eliza MacDonald, ex- '11; Barton Jackson, '37, daughter of Clyde McDaniel, '10; Martha Johnson, '37, daugh- ter of Ruth Dolly, Special; Virginia Gaines, '37, daughter of Ethel Gaines, '00, and granddaughter of the first president of Agnes Scott, Dr. F. H. Gaines; Kathleen Daniel, '37, daughter of Kathleen Kirk- patrick, '04; Caroline Armistead, '38, daughter of Frances McCrory, Academy; Kennon Henderson, '38, daughter of Nellie Lcuise Mandeville, '99; Mary Lyon Hull, '38, daughter of Martha Miller, ex-'09; Winifred Kellersberger, '38, stepdaughter of Julia Lake Skinner, '19; Dorothy Lee Kelly, '38, daughter of Gladys Lee, '11; Mary Nell Tribble, '38, daughter of Martha Schaefer, Institute; Nancy Tucker, '38, daughter of Lavalette Sloan, '13; Pauline Wynne, '38, daughter of Frances Dukes, '13; Lillian and Lulu Croft, '38, daugh- ters of Lulie Morrow, '05; Nell Scott Earthman, '38, daughter of Eliza Candler, Institute, and great-granddaughter of Col- onel George Washington Scott, founder of Agnes Scott College; and Martha Young, '38, daughter of Martha Hall, '12, The Club met informally for a business session in September. They were entertained at a formal seated tea by the Alumnae Associa- tion on Wednesday, October 17. To this oc- casion were invited the local mothers and members of the Executive Board of the Association. Further plans for the club for the session will include a dinner in De- cember or November, to which each grand- daughter will invite an escort.
ife jjt % #
The New York Agnes Scott Club is pre- paring for their usual three meetings during the course of the next year. Betty Gash, '29, President, reports that these are very successful get-togethers, but could not be held more often, since it is so hard to organize people in New York City.
34 Honor Students were announced at Chapel on September 22, at which time Lucile Alexander, '11, made an excellent talk. Of interest to alumnae was the award to Clara Morrison, '35, daughter of Louise Read, Academy; to Elizabeth Forman, '36, daughter of Mary Dortch, Institute; and to Isabel McCain, '37, daughter of Dr. J. R. McCain, President of Agnes Scott. Of these 34, 13 were seniors, 10 juniors and 11 sophomores.
* * * *
Gaines Cottage has been renovated and reopened to students this session. The
three dormitories (Rebekah, Main and In- man) are in use as a result of the in- creased enrollment. The number of stu- dents to date is 488, with 71 new day and 121 new boarding students, 145 old day and 151 old boarding students.
* * * *
The Basement of Main now boasts of a kitchenette, made possible by a gift from the class of '34. This will prove of in- estimable value in entertaining in the re- ception rooms of the Main Building. The kitchenette includes in its equipment a small range, utensils, dishes, shelves, cabinets, and a sink.
Attention is called to the back cover of this issue cf the Quarterly, where you will find a notice of great importance from the Chairman of the Publicity Committee, Janef Preston, '21.
* * * *
The Student Loan Committee has been able to make three small loans to stu- dents now in Agnes Scott this session. An urgent appeal to all alumnae who owe money to this fund is made, with the hope that funds returned this year will be avail- able for other badly needed loans.
* * * *
The Entertainment Committee has been very active this fall, in entertaining for the new students on Friday of the new ses- sion and in arranging for a seated tea for the Granddaughters' Club on October 17.
* * * *
Chapel Services follow a regular sched- ule this year: Tuesday is set aside for Y. W. C. A.; Wednesday for the faculty; Thursday for Student Government; Friday for stunts; and Saturday for Dr. McCain's programs.
* * * *
Wednesday Nights are gala ones on the campus. The students are required to dress for dinner and to be on time. After din- ner, coffee is served by some campus or- ganization in the reception rooms in Main.
* * * *
Three Exchange Students are on the
Agnes Scott campus this year. They rep- resent France, Germany and Argentina.
* * * *
Dorothy Smith, '30, and Virginia Heard, '33, deserve honorable mention. The former is spending the winter in France on a scholarship won from Harvard University; the latter is studying at the University of Michigan, having won the Beck Memorial Scholarship.
* * * *
1322 B. A. Degrees have been awarded from Agnes Scott at present; compare this figure with that of 132 in 1915 and be proud of the continued progress of our Alma Mater!
34
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
The Committee on Beautifying Grounds
has been active during the summer in preparing flower beds for spring blooming. It is the hope of the committee to erect the arch over the pergola this year. Do- nations from local clubs has made it possi- ble for the committee to reduce the amount borrowed from the Savings Fund of the Alumnae Association from $114.67 to $60.42. Appreciation for these donations is felt by the committee chairmen, past and present.
* * * *
The Local Clubs Committee hopes to or- ganize Agnes Scott Clubs in any city which has twenty-five or more Agnes Scotters living there at the present time. Mary Waller Shepherd, '28, Chairman of this Committee, and Elinor Hamilton, '34, are going to devote their energies in this direction.
$ sis $ *
The Tea Room is this year leased to the Misses Nelle and Lila Barnett from Sharon, Ga. They are very eager to serve the needs of the campus and to cater to outside trade among the alumnae and their friends. If you are a local alumna, keep them in mind in planning your parties. If you are a little farther away, make the Alumnae House your headquarters for a visit during the session.
The Alumnae Office has been moved up- stairs into the old sitting room. The space and privacy are expected to work wonders. The increased office force, composed of the General Secretary and five student assist- ants in school on scholarship aid was the immediate reason for this change.
* * * *
The Curriculum Committee is making attractive plans for the fourth of our Agnes Scott Alumnae Week-Ends. The tentative program is outlined by Clara (Whips) Dunn, '16, Chairman, in this is- sue. It is hoped that the completed pro- gram, reading lists and more personal in- vitations to the festivities of the Week- End can be placed in the mails soon. Make your plans now for a return visit to Agnes Scott on February 22, for Founder's Day and the Alumnae Week-End.
* * * *
Elinor Hamilton, '34, successor to Penny (Brown) Barnett, '32, is out for students for Agnes Scott for 1935-1936 and suc- ceeding sessions. The cooperation of alum- nae in calling her attention to prospective students will be a real service to the Col- lege and of actual help to Elinor in her work.
The Washington, D. C, Club contributed $5.00 to the Alumnae Garden during the summer. The first fall meeting was held with Eva (Moore) Sandifer, ex-'25. Eva
is the new President of the Club, and Mar- guerite Kennedy, ex-'34, is the newly elected Secretary.
* * * *
The New Orleans Club sent in a number of dainty linen luncheon sets for the use of the Tea Room the early part of the summer. These came as a welcome sur- prise, since the wear and tear on our linen necessitates its being replaced often.
* * * *
The Charlotte Club completed their do- nation to the pergola in the Alumnae Gar- den with a check of $39.25 during the sum- mer. This gift was greatly appreciated by the Garden Committee and by the many alumnae who have been able to enjoy the pergola and the lovely roses.
The Atlanta Club, under the presidency of Sarah Belle (Brodnax) Hansell, '23, is anticipating a full and successful year. The first fall meeting was held at the home of the president, with Dr. J. R. McCain as the featured speaker of the afternoon. The club has been divided into small working groups, which will cooperate as units in contributing something of value to the Alumnae House, the Alumnae Garden, or to the College during the session. The Club, as a whole, is continuing many of its projects.
The Decatur Club meets monthly with Susan (Shadburn) Watkins, '26, presiding. Carrie Scandrett, '24, spoke on achieve- ments of the College and changes in the student activities at the September meet- ing. Dr. Cullen B. Gosnell, husband of Louisa (White) Gosnell, '27, and profes- sor of History and Economics at Emory University, spoke at the October meeting on "Better Citizenship." The Club is sponsoring the sale of wax, has arranged for demonstrations of alumninum vessels, and hopes by many other small ventures to increase their treasury materially. The officers of the club are: President, Susan (Shadburn) Watkins, '26; Vice-President, Emily Stead, '27; Secretary and Treasurer, Dorothy Cassel, '34. Meetings of the Executive Board on the third Monday of each month precede the regular meetings on the fourth Monday.
* # * *
The Business Girls' Group of the Atlanta Club meets monthly at a downtown tea room. The schedule at present is to meet alternate months at Rich's Tea Room and the Frances-Virginia Tea Room, the Sep- tember meeting having been held at Rich's, with Dr. J. R. McCain of Agnes Scott as guest speaker. The meetings are well at- tended from twelve to two, the lunch hour for many alumnae working in offices in Atlanta.
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At^WES SCOTT COLLEGE "GATUR, GEORGIA
Alumnae
Samtanj, 1935
Cfie Hlgneg J>cott Mlumnae 4£uarterlp
Published in Nov., Jan., April and July by the Agnes Scott Alumnae Association Entered as second class matter under the Act of Congress, August, 1912.
Volume XIII January, 193 5 Number 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Investiture 1934 2
Education a Trust 3
Annie May Christie
Reading Lists for the Fourth Alumnae Week-End 6
Another Fine Offer 9
J. R. McCain
Is American Labor Pacifist? 11
William P. Maddox
Experiences of a Year in France 17
Mary Sprinkle
Office News 20
Class News 22
hH»***^<I^**^^**************,H,*****'I^**4^**'^****<H'***********
INVESTITURE, 1934 This interesting picture was made on November 3, 1934 when the class of '3 5 was formally invested with academic caps and gowns. In the group are Miss Nannette Hopkins, Dean, capping Elizabeth Alexander (niece of Lucile Alex- ander and Ethel (Alexander) Gaines,) with Sarah Cook looking on.
EDUCATION A TRUST
Annie May Christie
Assistant Professor of English at Agnes Scott College
(The talk made to the seniors of 193 5 at Investiture, November 3, 1934)
"The truth is, very few can be trusted with an education." If this statement of Miss Louise Guiney's is justified, it is a sad indictment of most college graduates. She thought of the great majority of them as so-called learned persons of the type that made Hazlitt say more testily, "Anyone who has passed through the regular gradations of a classical education and is not made a fool by it may consider himself as having had a very nar- row escape." She saw them as graduates who emerge from college puffed up with book- learning and so lacking in judgment and the graces of culture that they never forget nor let others forget that they are learned. But that is not the only type that cannot be trusted with an education. Complaints are made that there are many college graduates who proceed to forget as soon as they leave their colleges what they have learned there. Far from showing any pride at all in their learning, they slough it off as quickly as possible. A few days before I was asked to speak to you on this occasion, I read with my freshman class such a complaint voiced by Everett Dean Martin, who said: "The college man shares the usual popular prejudices of his community. He runs with the crowd after the hero of the hour and shows the same lack of discrimination as do the uneducated. He votes the same party ticket, is intolerant along with his neighbors, and puts the same value on material success as do the illiterate. His education has made very little difference in his religious beliefs, his social philosophy, his ethical values, or his general outlook on the world."
It has never occurred to either of these graduates that he has been entrusted with any- thing, that education is a trust given to him, accompanied, as all trusts are, by an obliga- tion to use it for the purpose for which it was intended — in this case, that of fitting him and keeping him fitted for living up to his best possibilities as a member of society. Yet that is exactly what education is and what the ideal college graduate understands it to be. He accepts it as such and says to his college, adapting the words of the psalmist, "Thy words have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. ... I will meditate on thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word."
What are the words of my college, you should be asking now, these precepts that I must live by after I leave college in order to keep my trust and be a true daughter of Agnes Scott, these words which I need to fix deeply in my heart now — if I have not already done so — in the remaining months I have in college? You have had opportunity to hear them over and over as she has said them to you both directly and indirectly, but you have not heard them, seated as you are in your senior robes, at the high moment of celebrating your investiture. You have perhaps at times been inattentive to them; you can hardly afford to be so now. Since we shall not have time for even the mention of all of them, I have selected three on which I should like to say something to you, believing that the others will occur to you readily once you have begun to think about them.
Your college says to you first, Continue the habit of study I have insisted upon your forming, for it will be a great factor in making your lives full and useful. At the end of this year you will have been here four years, but that is long enough only to have started your education. It is the greatest mistake a graduate can make to think she is educated on her graduation day. Education is a life-long process of gathering in of new ideas, of reflecting upon their influence upon each other and upon old ideas, and of adjust- ing one's thinking accordingly. Matthew Arnold has said, "Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it." Can you not see how that educational program reaches out over your entire life? What are four years in such a venture? And study does play a great part in this program. The one thing that your college gives you that you cannot count upon to remain entirely
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
fresh and usable is the body of facts you learn. Facts of today may not be facts tomor- row because of the discovery of new truth. There will be much for you to learn from observation and from books about character of this perfection toward which you must work. Agnes Scott will have been able to equip you with a few tools, to inculcate a few habits, to point the way. That is about all. If you stop growing now it will be as if a composer had had an inspiration, had collected all of his materials, and filled with his idea, was just ready to write himself into music that would stir the world, only to have paralysis seize his hands and lock up in him the music that would have meant his de- velopment and that of others. I know a veritable Rip Van Winkle, a man who stopped growing, went mentally to sleep, more than twenty years ago, so people say who have known him for that period of time. He has been rejected as a teacher, but the sad fact is that he continues to talk in his sleep. I, for one, have the painful memory of having been forced three times to hear him develop the same old ideas in the same old way to practically the same audience. I approve his college's repudiation of him: he has not kept his trust. It really is a pity that all colleges have not the machinery and the oppor- tunity to show their disapproval of the pitifully inadequate lives many of their graduates live. That the excuse they would offer, that their entire time is filled by the office or the children or the housekeeping or the teaching, is not valid is happily proved by the re- spectable number who do manage to keep growing mentally.
The second word of your college concerns the way you think. She says to you, I have taught you to be independent, discriminating, and open-minded in your thinking; continue to think thus. As in college, so in the life beyond college no one can, nor should, do your thinking for you. Some must be leaders, to be sure, and some followers; yet though you be a follower, you can at least choose to what leaders or to what idea you will give your allegiance. Nor should you follow slavishly the leader or the cause you have chosen. The intelligent disciple lays his own convictions alongside the tenets of his leader and says, Here I am with you but here I disagree, and for these reasons; I follow you now because, of all possible leaders, you come nearest to expressing my views and I can best carry them out by supporting you; but I do not approve of certain ideas that you have, and if I can find a better leader, I shall follow him. Nothing shall bind me to you but my honest and whole-hearted approval of your leadership.
And assuredly if you are to be independent of the individual leader of thought, you are not to be led by mass thinking. The popularity of a man or of an idea, alas, does not indicate his or its worth. It may, and often does, indicate the greed or the selfishness or the ignorance of the followers. Absolute and constant agreement with the prevailing opinion makes for stagnation; progress has come through independent minds like that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, skeptical of the learning of his time, set about testing it in the light of known truth and experiment and ridding the mind of its idols. While still at Cambridge he said that he recognized in himself "special adaptation for contemplation of truth. For," he says, "I possessed a passion for research, a power of suspending judg- ment with patience, of meditating with pleasure, of assenting with caution, of cor- recting false impressions with readiness, and of arranging my thoughts with scrupulous pains." There is an interesting combination of skepticism and faith in independent thinking — skepticism as to the truth of existing ideas is the starting point; faith in the power of truth to make itself known to the honest seeker after it enables the thinker to go on. Be sure that the blind follower of ready-made ideas will never get a revelation of truth. The independent thinker, however, needs judgment, discrimination. There is no virtue in independent thought which leads to the wrong conclusion. A much more dangerous person than the blind follower is the thinker who shakes himself free from all guidance. He should know that the experience of mankind should be taken into account, that he must have criteria, and that his measuring rules must be true. The only way we have to measure the truth of an idea is by placing it against our standard of truth
The Agnes Scott Alu mnae Quarterly 5
and carefully noting its conformity or lack of conformity to that standard. He should strive for a proper sense of values, making use of all aids in arriving at his power of discrimination wherever he can find them, in authority as well as in experience. Only after setting up such standards should he attempt to judge for himself.
The independent thinker is likely to be the flexible thinker. He certainly should be, for nothing is sadder than the person who, having gone through the laborious process of arriving at a conclusion, becomes infatuated with it and closes his mind to all other ideas, especially to ideas that would force a change in that conclusion if given a fair oppor- tunity. The method being followed by President Roosevelt, that of experimenting toward a solution of our difficult situation, shows him to be a flexible, open-minded thinker. Accustomed as we are to being ruled by a fixed policy, we are now having the heartening experience of being ruled, not by a policy, but by a thinker who is not hidebound but is honestly and frankly with the aid of other independent thinkers trying to work out our national salvation.
The independent, discriminating, open-minded thinker is not impulsive; he can with Lord Bacon "suspend judgment with patience." He is not satisfied with half-baked opin- ions, but keeps searching until he comes to just conclusions; nor does he then rest in the assurance that he has arrived at ultimate truth. But he knows where he is going, for he knows that the end of all his thinking must be truth, and he gains steadily in swiftness and surety in arriving at his goal.
Agnes Scott's third and last word to you for today is, Wear the robes of your learning gracefully. They are not pretentious robes; they never should be. They are very simple at present, but the lines are lovely if you know how to wear them. There is a design upon them that you yourself will embroider in your own way, making these magic garments richer and more beautiful the longer you wear them. Your college does not wish to send out swaggerers, more learned-than-thou snobs flaunting their assumed super- iority in the face of the world. She has by precept and example tried to teach what Zona Gale has called "the power of order, the power of beauty, the power of subtlety." You wish to make use of what you have learned, to make your world better because you have lived and learned in it, to be sure. But you do not need to go out as rabid reformers, nor as broadcasting encyclopedias to do this. If you do, you will not find a ready recep- tion for your ideas; you will be too formidable. The true scholar has always been un- assuming, simple, quiet. That does not mean that he does not speak and speak with all the power in him when the time has arrived for him to speak. If he really knows, he will not have to make occasions to tell what he knows; the occasion will call him out. There are too many speeches being made anyway, and too many books being written. In their demands that the professors publish, many of the colleges and universities are guilty parties to the flooding of the country with inferior books that serve no useful purpose, add no new truth to the sum total of man's knowledge and no new beauty, but only enable the institution to say that its faculty has published so many books. Ruskin had a disturbing way of probing straight to truth. In answer to the exponents of progress who had been boasting of their railroads and telegraphs, he said, "Your railroad ... is only a device for making the world smaller; and as for being able to talk from place to place, that is indeed convenient, but suppose you have, originally, nothing to say." And Arnold says that culture "is not so bent on acting and instituting even with the great aim of diminishing human error and misery ever before its thoughts, but that it can remember that acting and instituting are of little use unless we know how and what we ought to act and to institute." "Not so bent on acting and instituing." It is the being bent on acting that is objectionable to people, the forcing of premature ideas upon them with a cocksureness that has come too generally to be known as the mark of a college graduate. Please do not think that I am preaching shyness to you. That is far
(Cntinucd on page 10)
READING LISTS FOR THE FOURTH ALUMNAE WEEK-END
The fourth Alumnae Week-End, as planned by the present Curriculum Committee of the Alumnae Association under the chairmanship of Clara (Whips) Dunn, '16, may be considered as having a triple aspect. First there are those lectures grouped under the heading "Our Changing Standards" and covering two days, February the twenty-second and twenty-third. Second there are lectures under the title "Motherhood a Profession for the College Woman," to be given on February the twenty-third. And finally there is the program for children of alumnae of ages from four to twelve which has been ar- ranged for Saturday morning, February the twenty-third. This is the first time that the Alumnae Week-End has not been treated as a unit and this is the first time that reading lists for alumnae have been submitted by our speakers, published by the Cur- riculum Committee and mailed to our alumnae. It is hoped that the increased number of topics for discussion and speakers and the printing of these reading lists will arouse much interest and make many of you eager to return to Agnes Scott for the dates February the twenty-second and twenty-third. The programs are given below, with a key to the book lists following them.
GROUP I. OUR CHANGING STANDARDS Friday, February 22, 193 5
a. 10:00 A. M. Dr. Emma May Laney of Agnes Scott College, "What is Expected of
the Present Day College Woman."
b. 10:40 A. M. Dr. Philip Davidson of Agnes Scott College, "Changing Standards of
Present Day Governments."
c. 11:20 A. M. Dr. Mercer Evans of -Emory University, "Current Thinking Among
the Economists."
Saturday, February 23, 193 5
d. 10:00 A. M. Dr. Leroy Loemker of Emory University, "Changing Standards in
Philosophy."
e. 10:40 A. M. Dr. Roy Kracke of Emory University, "Practice of Medicine in the
Future."
f. 11:20 A. M. Dr. George Hayes of Agnes Scott College "Our Changing Standards
in Literature." GROUP II. MOTHERHOOD A PROFESSION FOR THE COLLEGE WOMAN
Saturday, February 23, 193 5
a. 10:00 A. M. Clara (Whips) Dunn, '16, "Masterpiece," Introduction.
b. 10:15 A. M. Miss Martha Mc Alpine of the University of Georgia (Georgia State
Chairman of Parent Education), "The College Woman and Parent Education."
c. 10:45 A.M. Allie (Candler) Guy, '13, "How Do I Rate as a Mother?" Question-
naire (Parent Rating Scale, prepared by the Tower Hill School of Wil- mington, Delaware.)
d. 11:05 A. M. Mrs. J. O. Martin of Atlanta (Supervisor in the Atlanta Public
School System.) "Through Literature to Life."
e. 11:40 A. M. Dr. J. R. McCain of Agnes Scott College, "Why Agnes Scott Needs
a Department of the Home."
GROUP III. PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN OF ALUMNAE
Saturday, February 23, 193 5
This program has been arranged by Llewellyn Wilburn, '19, Head of the Agnes
Scott College Physical Education Department. Alumnae children, from the ages of four
to twelve, are invited. These will be divided into three groups: the pre-school age from
four to six; the school age from six to eight; and the older group from nine to twelve.
The pre-school group will be in charge of an alumna with training in kindergarten
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 7
work. The school group will be under the supervision of another alumna, and will enjoy during the course of the morning a grand march, a period of story telling, folk dancing, a swimming exhibition, and games. The older group will be entertained with a grand march, tumbling, a visit to the Agnes Scott Biology Museum, a swimming exhibition, a ball game, and story telling. The committee which has worked with Miss Wilburn in completing these plans was: Miss Emily Dexter of the Agnes Scott Psychology Department, Sarah Bowman, '32, Fannie G. (Mayson) Donaldson, '12, and Shirley (McPhaul) Whitfield, '31. An enjoyable period of play and diversion is guaranteed from ten to twelve that morning.
OTHER FEATURES OF THE WEEK-END
A word in passing should be said about the other features of the Alumnae Week- End. The Founder's Day program will be broadcast over WSB at some time Friday evening, the exact time to be announced later. The Atlanta and Decatur Club groups, in celebration of Founder's Day, will enjoy a dinner at the Druid Hills Golf Club that evening. On Saturday the alumnae will be able to make arrangements for an attrac- tive luncheon in the Alumnae Tea Room at twelve-thirty. Susan (Young) Eagan, Institute, is chairman for this feature. A special luncheon will also be arranged for the children of alumnae who will be spending the morning of the twenty-third on the campus.
READING LISTS FOR THE FOURTH ALUMNAE WEEK-END
(These books will be found in the Emory University Library, the Emory Medical Library, the Agnes Scott College Library, the Atlanta branches of the Carnegie Library and in the Rivers School Library.) HISTORY: Group I. b. Coming Struggle for Power, John Strachey New Governments in Europe, R. L. Buell Germany Enters the Third Reich, Calvin Hoover Strong Man Rules, George N. Schuester Democracy in Crisis, Harold Laskey Soviet Russia, Chamberlain The Soviet State, Maxwell Making the Fascist State, H. W. Schneider The New Freedom, Walter Lippmann The Future Comes, Charles A. Beard Bolshevism, Fascism, Democracy, Nitti Crisis Government, Lindsay Rogers ECONOMICS: Group I. c.
"'Econmic Problems of the Neiv Deal, Atkins, Fredrich and Wyckoff '''New Frontiers, Wallace Contemporary Economic Thought, Homan The Industrial Discipline, Tugwell ''Individualism and Socialism, Page *On Money, 'Kem'merer Institutional Economics, Commons '''The Masquerade of Monopoly, Fetter Engineers and the Price System, Veblen
The Economics of the Recovery Program, Brown, and others ''The Challenge of Liberty, Hoover
* Intended for popular consumption, most easily read by those not trained in Economics. PHILOSOPHY: Group I. d.
[for a general survey of the contempory field] Types of Philosophy, W. E. Hocking
8 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
Introduction to Living Philosophy, D. S. Robinson
Dialogues in Limbo, G. Santayana
Living Philosophies, various authors (Both interesting and valuable, although in large
part an example of what philosophy is not.) Contemporary American Philosophy, Adams and Montague 2 vol. Contemporary English Philosophy, J. H. Muirhead 2 vol.
[for readable and reliable accounts of the history:] Philosophers in Hades, T. V. Smith The Searching Mind of Greece, J. M. Warbeke The Spirit, of Modern Philosophy, Josiah Royce (These lectures to a Woman's Club of
the 80's have never been surpassed.)
[FOR CLEAR STATEMENTS OF THEIR CREED BY PROMINENT AMERICAN THINKERS:]
A Common Faith, John Dewey Nature and Life, A. N. Whitehead MEDICINE: Group I. e. The Costs of Medical Care, I. S. Falk
International Studies on the Relation Between the Private and Official Practices of Medi- cine, Sir Arthur Newsholme Medicine and the State, Sir Arthur Newsholme The Way of Health Insurance, A. M. Simons The Purchase of Medical Care, Pierce Williams LITERATURE: Group I. f. Rousseau and Romanticism, Irving Babbitt Towards Standards, Norman Foerster Modern Painting, Frank Jewett Mather
The Demon of the Absolute (the first two essays of this volume), Paul Elmer More On Contemporary Literature, Stuart P. Sherman PARENT EDUCATION: Group II. The Modem Parent, Gary Cleveland Myers
New Horizions for Children (Progressive Education), Sam Wood Cobb Normal Youth, Douglas Thorn,
Or The Everyday Problem of the Everyday Child, Douglas Thorn Children of a New Day, Katherine Glover
The Child, His Nature and His Needs, Russell Sage Foundation of Chicago, Illinois The Home Maker and Her Job, Lillian Gilbreth,
Or Living With Our Children, Lillian Gilbreth PARENT EDUCATION: Group III.
Rhythms and Dances for Elementary Schools, Dorothy LaSalle An Introduction to Child Study, Strang Child Guidance, Blanton and Blanton Guidance of Childhood and Youth, Gruenberg Social Problems of the Family, Grove Wholesome Childhood, Grove The Inner World of Childhood, Wickes The Psychology of the Adolescent, Leta S. Hollingsworth Intelligent Parenthood, Compiled by the Chicago Association for Child Study and Parent
Education A Tentative Inventory of the Habits of Children from Two to Four Years of Age,
Ruth Andrus Feeding the Family, Mary Swartz Rose
ANOTHER FINE OFFER
J. R. McCain
The General Education Board, which has long been a staunch friend of Agnes Scott, has just proved its continued confidence and interest by making another generous proposi- tion. This time it is trying to encourage the College to complete the campaign on which we have been working, and it offers an extra $100,000 if the full amount required is in hand by June 30th, 193 5.
The story of how this extra offer came to be made is an interesting one. The College asked last year for a hvo-year extension of time, but the Board felt that only one year could be granted. It seemed very important, therefore, to get our larger subscribers to pay up if possible by next July. The largest outstanding pledge (really the largest made at all during the campaign) was the sum of $65,000 from the Presser Foundation of Philadelphia. Last September the President of the College visited the Presser offices to see if it might be possible for them to pay up on time. They assured Agnes Scott that their pledge is perfectly good and will be paid in due time, but it will be impossible to pay it by June.
It looked as if the chances of winning on time were remote indeed, and they were not at all brightened when the Carnegie Corporation, to whom an appeal had been made, reported that they also could do nothing at once. The prospects were still further dampened when the General Education Board indicated that it was still its belief that further extension of time would be unwise.
The only chance that seemed left was to get some additional incentive to stir the Agnes Scott supporters; and the question was cautiously asked as to whether the Board might be willing to give us an additional Science Building in case we should make an extra effort and prove to be successful. The suggestion did not seem to meet with favor. The Board rarely gives any offer to a college until it has finished entirely previous con- tracts. It did not have the additional funds from which to make such a contract. The Board has long discontinued grants for science halls, and its new policies allow very limited consideration for liberal arts colleges of the Agnes Scott type.
It was a great surprise, therefore, when just a week after such a discouraging inter- view, one of the most sympathetic officers of the Board came to the campus and asked to see about our need for better Science quarters. He still assured us that we must not be too expectant, but that we might submit a formal request for cooperation along the line suggested. It seemed a forlorn hope, but the College really makes a fine showing in its growth in science work and the need for better quarters.
We were quite encouraged a little later for President Arnett of the General Education Board came all the way to Atlanta to look over our building locations and tentative building plans; but we were troubled that he was taken ill the day he arrived and was never able to visit the grounds, though he did allow a brief presentation to him of pictures and plans as shown on paper. We knew that the earnest prayers of many people were centered on our cause, and also that we have some very firm friends among the officers and members of the Board.
It was very thrilling to receive on December 13 th a telegram from the General Edu- cation Board making the definite $100,000 offer and asking that we use every effort to make the campaign a complete success. It is only on that condition that this gift is made.
Agnes Scott has still to collect $23 3,000 in cash by June 30th next. If we succeed,
the Board will give us $217,000. The total sum of $450,000 would then be spent as
follows: Endowment $150,000; New Library $200,000; Additional Science Hall $100,-
000. The present library building will then be used for a Student Activities Building,
filling a need that has long been a serious one.
10 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
This new set-up will postpone for the present the erection of the Auditorium and Fine Arts Building, thugh this is to come later. It will provide what most of us on the campus believe to be our most needed facilities at this particular time.
The raising of our part of the money is a serious matter, but it is no more serious than it was before this last offer was made. We have the same amount of money to collect, but there is a so much greater reward if we do it. We have now about $240,000 in unpaid subscriptions; but, as mentioned above, the Presser Foundation pledge of $65,000 must be counted out for this year. Quite a number of our most loyal and devoted alumnae and friends will not be able to pay in full by June 30th. It means, therefore, that we must find some new gifts to the extent of perhaps $12 5,000, and we must have the sug- gestions and help of all our friends in finding those who can help substantially.
We do not know of large sums that are available, and it will have to be a case of many small sums given in love and sacrifice which in their total may make the big amount we need. It will help if our subscribers will write to let us know what the prospects are of making payments by June 30th.
It is a time when our prayers and interest and loyalty will be most effective.
EDUCATION A TRUST
(Continued from page 5) from my intention; nor do I wish you to bury your talents. I am only saying that while your college would have you seek "to make reason and the will of God prevail," she would have you do it in the way of culture, which is through the power that is inherent in the beauty and the truth of your learning.
Way back in 1618 one James Howell wrote to his father thanking him for "that most indulgent and costly Care you have been pleased in so extraordinary a manner to have had of my Breeding (tho* but one child of Fifteen) by placing me in a choice Methodical Schoole so far distant from your dwelling under a Learned (tho' Lashing) master; and by transplanting me thence to Oxford to be graduated; and soe holding me still up by the chin, until I could swim without Bladders. This patrimony of liberate Education you have been pleased to endow me withal, I now carry along with me as a sure inseparable Treasure; nor do I feel it any burden or incumbrance unto me at all!"
And many centuries ago the psalmist said, "And I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts."
Agnes Scott is proud of her many graduates who have kept the trust she has reposed in them; she confidently expects you to do likewise.
IS AMERICAN LABOR PACIFIST?
William P. Maddox Department of Government, Harvard University
(Reprinted here through the courtesy of The American Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa
Publication)
When the forces for world peace which have been accelerated or retarded during this past year are catalogued and measured few people will attach much significance to the radical stand taken against war by the American Socialist Party at its June Convention. In this as in many other matters the popular judgment can only be tested by time. It cannot be denied, however, that the Detroit proceedings did attract wide attention at the moment on account of the triumph, there celebrated, of a peace policy more "mili- tant" than any to which the Party had previously committed itself. In contrast to the usual innocuous proclamations for peace, arbitration, and disarmament a new and somewhat menacing note was struck in the resolution on the Socialists' attitude towards war: "They will meet war and the detailed plans for war already mapped out by the war-making arms of the government by massed war resistance, organized so far as practicable in a general strike of labor unions and professional groups in a united effort to make the waging of war a practical impossibility, and to convert the capitalist war crisis into a victory for socialism."
Students familiar with the history of the international socialist movement will readily identify this threat of a general-strike-to-prevent-war. Making its first appearance in the congresses of the Second International as far back as 1891 the strike proposal was fiercely debated at Stuttgart in 1907 and again at Copenhagen in 1910 without the achievement of any substantial agreement. Since the War, however, it has been verbally approved by conferences of both the Labor and Socialist International and of the Inter- national Federation of Trade Unions and only last year the British Labor Party reaffirmed its previous endorsement of 1926. So qualified and contingent was British Labor's de- cision, however, and so lacking in ardor was the support of the trade unionist element (which developed into outright opposition this past September in the Trades Union Congress) that few people regard it as raising a serious obstacle to war. And with only about 20,000 scattered industrial workers enrolled as Party members (of whom there are about 30,000) the American Socialists can scarcely expect that the striking power which they immediately control would provide even as much obstruction to war as that of foreign labor.
However lightly one may be inclined to regard this movement to mobilize the world's industrial workers in a strike-action against an impending war, no one can question the firmness of purpose by which the socialist doctrinaires are motivated. Quite apart from the issue as to its probable effectiveness under specific circumstances, the strike is significant simply as representing one bit of propagandist material in a spirited and determined campaign against war. The substantial and venerable socialist doctrine re- mains unaffected: that international labor solidarity, manifested by simultaneous peace- ful protests and demonstrations is capable, even without the strike, of stopping war preparations. This faith in organized labor's influence for peace has been maintained for nearly a century. It has been preached at labor conventions, thundered forth on propagandist platforms, and blazoned in the headlines of radical news-sheets en repeaterlly and so vehemently that it has acquired all the trappings of sacred and inviolable dogma. And strangely enough, as a conviction and perhaps as one of those inextinguishable ideals it survived the hurricane of 1914 which swept over the clamor and protests of inter- national labor and socialist leaders as if they had been but the twitterings of so many fretful sparrows.
But what, it may be asked, has all this "radical ferment" in foreign labor move- ments to do with American workers? With the exception of a few unions which are
12 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
affiliated with their respective international trade secretariats, organized labor (as repre- sented in the powerful American Federation of Labor) maintains that tradition of isola- tion and fear of European entanglements so long characteristic of American governmen- tal policies. And as was pointed out above, the American Socialist Party, which does have international associations, is simply a small propagandist society; its doctrine scarcely touches the fringe of the vast body of industrial workers in this country. Are these work- ers, at least those organized for political power in the American Federation, as resolute in their opposition to war as the Europeans profess to be?
Before considering this question it should be observed that while the present isola- tionism of the American Federation is obviously at variance with international labor's doctrine of solidarity as the prime instrument against war, it does not necessarily follow that the Federation is indifferent to the peace objective. The difference may simply rest in conceptions of political method, in independent action as opposed to collective action. In the field of governmental policy, which offers a useful analogy, the United States in spite of her apparent hesitancy in participating in collective measures has been an outstanding leader in certain phases of the world's peace movement.
On the whole the fifty-year record of the American Federation of Labor in support of plans sponsored by peace movements at various periods is fairly clear. Its earliest action of importance was! taken in 18 87. Shortly before the Baltimore convention met in December of that year a delegation from the British House of Commons arrived in this country for the purpose of urging a most astonishing thing — a treaty undertaking by the United States and Great Brittain to arbitrate all disputes not settled by diplo- matic agencies. This, be it noted, was pacifism in an extreme form in the 1 8 80's. No such sweeping treaty had ever been made between modern governments. But the pro- posal struck a responsive chord in the heart of Samuel Gompers, the fiery young president of the American Federation. He extended an invitation to W. R. Cremer, a British trade unionist and member of the delegation, to speak on the matter before the Balti- more convention. Cremer accepted and his address was well received. A resolution was immediately introduced declaring that "the working class — the class that always bears the brunt of war [had] the most profound interest in the establishment and maintenance of peace," and that the Federation hailed with deep satisfaction the arrival of the mission. This gesture of sympathy towards the arbitration project was almost spoiled, it is true, by a few Irish- American trade unionists whose interest in peace struggled vainly to overcome a native antipathy to things British, but their feelings were adroitly mollified when an amendment was tacked onto the resolution: "We also extend our sympathies to the Irish people in their efforts for self-government. . . ." Thus was the peace movement, with its hand-maiden of Irish freedom, championed in 18 87. When this joint British- American effort finally culminated in a treaty be- tween the two governments ten years later (which treaty, incidentally, failed of ratification by the Senate) the Irish took the initiative in the Federation conventions in attacking the arrangement on the ground that the British government was "unreliable." A negative endorsement by the convention was given the treaty, however, when the Irish resolution was passed on to the Executive Council without the taking of any action.
Although the treaty was thwarted bv the United States Senate, the "graveyard" of arbitration treaties, Mr. Gompers entered enthusiastically into the movement supporting the new negotiations in 1904 and secured the backing of the San Francisco Federation convention in November of that year. Again the Senate balked at the proceedings. Labor, however, was persistant in its demands. Two years later when plans for the Second Hague Conference were being discussed the Federation convention at Minne- apolis adopted a resolution asking for a general arbitration treaty and a "periodic world assembly." This was no passing gesture, for American labor was thoroughly alarmed
The Agnes Scott Alum nae Quarterly 13
over the gradually increasing European tension and demanded action. It was recom- mended that every local, and every central body and state branch should communicate with its respective members of Congress on the subject. A further resolution insisted that the President be apprised of the aroused labor feeling.
When the Hague Conference adjourned the following year no one was more dis- appointed at its meagre results than Mr. Gompers. Doggedly, however, he and other Federation officials kept up the fight for the setting up of machinery for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. A resolution in 1912 favoring the aribitration of all disputes was followed in 1913 by the Executive Council's endorsement of the conciliation treaties which had become the pet hobby of Secretary of State Bryan. On this occasion their hopes were realized, for a vast and complicated treaty structure was set up which constituted (along with the Root treaties of 1908) the American system for the prevention of war down to 1928.
Parallel to the interest of the Federation in arbitration has been its concern with the menace to peace lying in large military and naval establishments. "Militarism and competitive armaments must be abolished," declared the Executive Council in 1914 in its sweeping condemnation of the European War. Long before, in 1898, when the Tsar of imperial Russia had sent out his world-resounding invitation to governments to attend a conference for disarmament, Samuel Gompers had expressed his warm approval of the project. And now in 1914 with the words of the Executive Council ringing in its ears the Federation convention at Philadelphia unanimously approved the typographers' resolution pledging support to any plan for the "disarmament of all nations to the furthest extent consistent with the preservation of law and order throughout the world."
That labor's interest in disarmament was not ephemeral has been demonstrated on several occasions since the War. The action of the Denver convention in June, 1921 in approving the Executive Council's recommendation that the United States cooperate with or take the initiative in calling a disarmament conference had indeed a real political significance, for it strengthened the hands of President Harding when less than a month later he issued his official invitation to foreign governments to send delegates to a con- ference at Washington. Mr. Gompers and John Lewis were made the labor members of an Advisory Commission attached to the American delegation and the Federation organized an intensive campaign, culminating in 200 Armistice Day demonstrations, in support of the conference. In this work Mr. Gompers attained the peak of his achievements in behalf of the peace movement. When, his death occurred a few years later the tradition for which he more than any other individual was responsible was firmly implanted in the Federation. The support given the efforts of the American Government at the London and Geneva Disarmament Conferences has been unquestioned and a resolution to build the navy up to the London treaty quota failed to pass the Boston convention in October, 1930. Finally, the Federation has committed itself (1929) to the policy of working for the substitution of government for private manufacture of munitions.
In so far as the collective organization of peace is concerned, labor has also gone on record as being favorably disposed to the League of Nations, the World Court, and the Kellogg Pact. Even before the League Covenant was formulated the Executive Council busied itself in 1916 with elaborating a plan for "a league for peace to adjust disputes and difficulties," with periodic conferences and a permanent court. The plan also pro- vided for sanctions: "Joint use of both economic and military forces of signatory nations could be directed against the offending nation," that is, one engaging in hostilities "against another member of the league without having submitted its grievances in the proper way provided by the agreement." With several features of the Covenant so clearly anticipated it was but natural that Mr. Gompers should expect an endorsement
14 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
of the League when he returned from Paris in 1919 after serving as a member of the American Peace Commission. The draft of the Versailles Treaty had only been pub- lished a few weeks when the Federation met for its convention in Atlantic City in June. In spite of a violent attack against the entire League scheme by Andrew Furuseth, stormy petrel of the Seamen's Union, the favorable vote was overwhelming, 29,909 to 420, with 1,830 abstaining. This decision was reaffirmed by the 1920 convention; since that occasion, however, the enthusiasm of the Federation leaders for the League has apparently waned and further commitments either for or against have been avoided. Still, the Executive Council has aided the movement for joining the World Court and only last year the Washington convention urged continuation of the official attendance at the conferences of the International Labor Organization. Incidentally this latter action encouraged President Roosevelt to seek formal membership for the United States this past summer.
Labor's position with respect to American participation in world efforts for peace has kept pace with progressive internationalist sentiment in this country. It is true, however, that William Green, president of the Federation, is a less ardent champion of a collective peace system than was Samuel Gompers but allowances must be made for the increased concern of the Federation's Executive Council with considerations of political expediency. It is indeed improbable that the Council would revive the League issue unless it were encouraged in high quarters to think that such action might have fruitful results so far as the administration is concerned. But a firm support of the Kellogg Pact was manifested in July, 1932 when, during the Japanese invasion of Man- churia, it expressed its sympathy with plans to make the Pact more effective if this could be done in a manner that would "adequately protect the people of the United States." True, this apparent readiness to see the collective system strengthened was not entirely shared by the October convention, whose committee hoped that "thorough tests of the treaty in its present form [would] be made before any element of physical force, even though of a negative character, is made a part of the procedure to be followed in the application of the Pact to specific cases."
But labor's record in itself offers no assurance that the Federation would oppose a particular impending war. The same, indeed, applies to the activities of many so-called "peace" orgnizations. Peace as it is usually advocated is a delightful and innocuous abstraction, free from the storms of emotion which are immediately aroused when a specific grievance develops against a specific nation. When newspaper columns scream aloud the atrocious deeds of some upstart foreign nation in trampling on cherished American "rights and interests" it is not easy to stem the surge of indignation. And yet if ever a calm and patient stand for peace by powerful political groups within the country is needed, then is the time. The strain is invariably tremendous, for the im- pulse is to rush to the traditional weapons of war as a means of "avenging the wrong." The small, still cry for peace fades away before the thunderous demand for a high and noble crusade on behalf of human rights so ruthlessly crushed by the foreign despot. Like the majority of other citizens, leaders of the American Federation experienced this tempest of emotions in 1898 and again in 1917. They clamored loudly for Cuban freedom and gave generously when war came. They raged against the tyranny and effrontery of German militarism and joined exultantly in the holy war. "It is an im- perative duty from which there is no escape," the Executive Council solemly pronounced in 1917, "that wage-earners as well as all other citizens of this Republic support our government in its righteous effort to defend principles of humanity and to establish democracy in international relations. Because we desire permanent peace it is our duty to fight and sacrifice until these purposes can be achieved."
There is every likelihood that, if the circumstances of 1917 should be tragically repeated, labor's ideal of peace would collapse just as swiftly in the presence of these
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 15
other ideals. In a moment of calm deliberation in 1927 the Committee on International Labor Relations at the Los Angeles convention stated labor's position frankly: "We are not pacifists. We stand ready to fight for our political rights." We will never give up our right to fight, continued the Committee, "if honor, justice, freedom and self- preservation cannot be otherwise preserved." Has ever a war been fought in modern times which did not involve these principles — for both sides, How, indeed, does the Federation reconcile this position with its unqualified endorsement the very next year of the Kellogg Pact which in its second article states: "The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be (italics mine), which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means?"
Pacifism, if it is to mean anything, would manifest itself in a demand for the use of conciliatory methods of diplomatic consultation and arbitration even when the nebulous principle of "national honor" is at stake. This would imply the cultivation of a habit of mind readily disposed, so far as national interests go, to accept compromises, and "defeats as well as victories."
But let this be admitted, the sceptical labor leader may argue, what is the United States to do if a similar, determined, pacific disposition does not dominate the policies of the other country? It takes only one to make a war and two to keep the peace. There is merit in this argument, but it is an argument with implications of serious responsibilities for labor and with similar implications for every private, peace-minded organization whose interests and loyalties are closely tied up with those of related or- ganizations in other countries. It is indeed true that peace forces operating independently in one country are of little service if there are no similar forces in the country of the potential enemy. But if these peace forces be part of an organized international move- ment, acting in response to some central authority, a simultaneous pressure may be brought to bear in both nations. And this need involve no sympathy with the "case" of either government but simply a demand that both shall use only pacific methods in the settlement of the dispute. In countries neutral to the dispute the same pressure may be exerted on the respective governments to extend their "good offices" or to initiate a meeting of the Council of the League of Nations as provided in Article XI of the League Covenant. This is the type of action that the international labor movement has long contended might be efficacious, the type Samuel Gompers was thinking of in 1907 when he said, "it must never be forgotten that in the last analysis the masses of the people in every country have it in their hands to exert their own giant will and power against international war, and that if otherwise thwarted they will not hesitate to exert it."
In earlier days, particularly under the impetus of Gompers, the American Federation of Labor was cordially disposed towards the international labor movement. Indeed for a brief period — from 1910 until its virtual suspension by the War and again in 1919 and 1920 — the Federation was formally affiliated with the International Federation of Trade Unions whose headquarters were, and still are, in Europe. In 1920 the American leaders clamored for more group autonomy and fretted about socialism until they finally eased out of the international alliance. Like the State Department they went in for hemispheric self-sufficiency and sought to weld an instrument known as the Pan-American Federation of Labor to replace the European connections.
Although the Pan-American Federation has existed largely on paper since its last conference in 1927 the experience it offers for American-Mexican relations is very in- structive. The close relations which for a number of years after the Mexican revolution in 1910 developed between the American and Mexican labor movements contributed to the maintenance of peace between the two countries. Together they fought against American intervention. In times of crisis Mexican representatives came to Washington
16 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
and conferred with the Executive Council of the American Federation as to what con- ciliatory adjustments they might propose in the policies of their respective governments. Because they regarded American intervention or a Mexican-American war as directly contrary to their own joint interests they could work together for a common purpose. No better example is needed of the potentialities existing in the cooperation of labor movements for peace. The conditions of cooperation, it is true, must be right. On April 2, 1917, a few days before Congress declared war, it was but a futile gesture that Gompers made in his cable to the German trade unionist, Legien, that "we are all doing our level best to avert actual war and we have the right to insist that the men of labor of Germany exert their last ounce of effort" — to get the German government to meet American demands! Gompers himself was convinced that Germany was the aggressor and the German trade unionists' hands were tied because of the exigencies of the War in Europe.
What are the prospects today? American labor's relations with Mexican labor have not been smooth and it is uncertain whether they would stand the strain of threatening war. Relations with the Japanese labor movement were particularly friendly when it was struggling to get a footing in 1916 and 1917 but the immigration controversy has been responsible for keeping the two movements apart since the War. In the case of Soviet Russia the violent antipathy of Mr. Green and his associates towards every- thing Communist has been little alleviated by the reestablishment of diplomatic inter- course between the two governments. Relations with the British Trades Union Con- gress are the most cordial of all. Every year for the last 40 the two great national labor conventions have exchanged fraternal delegates with each other. About 80 American trade unionists, including most of the influential leaders, have attended sessions of the British Trades Union Congress during these years and a similar number have come to American labor conventions from Great Britain. Through these contacts there have been built up ties of personal friendship and mutual sympathy which would be of immense service in producing concerted action for peace if serious trouble arose between the United States and Great Britain.
The friendly connections with British labor have had important consequences within the past few months. In the first place they probably influenced the American Federa- tion's decision to move towards Geneva. With the United States now a member of the International Labor Organization the Federation will join the government and industry in sending delegates to the Organization's conferences. American labor will thus be drawn into continuous contact with foreign labor. Its genuine interest in the new venture was manifested by the presence of Mr. Harold B. Butler, Director of the Inter- national Labor Office, at the Federation's San Francisco convention this past October. Moreover, the presence at the same convention of Mr. Walter M. Citrine, a British trade unionist who is president of the International Federation of Trade Unions, was also significant. Impelled by a confidence in British leadership and by a growing concern with the menace of Fascism to continental trade unionism the convention adopted a resolution recommending that the Executive Council reconsider the question of affilia- tion with the International Federation. This body has been crippled by the loss of the powerful German section and would joyfully welcome American support at this time. The prospects for American labor cooperation with foreign labor movements seem, therefore, to be increasing. Labor leaders insist that such collaboration would be economic rather than political and therefore without significance for peace. Let this explanation of purpose be admitted. But even admitting further that American labor's devotion to peace is today tepid, contingent, and vulnerable, the fact remains that the relations with British labor already contribute to peace and that the understanding with Mexican labor triumphed for some years over governmental differences. Should the American Federa- tion of Labor extend the range of its friendships that action could, and might, be serviceable for international peace.
EXPERIENCES OF A YEAR IN FRANCE
Mary Sprinkle, '31 (Winner of the Quenelle Harrold Fellowship in 1933)
It was one of those glorious autumn afternoons, warmed by the sunshine of the Indian summer, and richly colored by the myriad shades of the turning leaves.
"On ferme, on ferme," the voice of the guards calling closing time rang throughout the Luxembourg Gardens. The little old lady sitting on the park bench did not hear them. She was lost in a reverie. As she watched the gay groups of children playing marbles, rolling hoops, shouting and laughing as they ran to and fro among the tall trees and up and down the shady lanes of the garden, her thoughts went back to the spring-time of her childhood, to the summer of her girlhood, to scenes such as those before her now. They were as perfectly mirrored in her memory as the little boy and his sail-boat were in the nearby fountain. And now in the winter of her life this was all of happiness that she had, these sweet hours in the beautiful garden. How infinitely lonely, how empty, how melancholy would her days be without them.
"On ferme, Madame." The guard tapped her on the shoulder. She got up and hurried along toward the big gate which was already closing upon those who, like her, had lingered on until the last moment.
For two months I lived in a pension on Boulevard Raspail, just off the Luxembourg Gardens. Scarcely a day passed when I did not go through them or by them, and frequently I went to the open air concerts there. I was continually struck with the love the French people have for the out-of-doors. This love is revealed not only by the beautiful public gardens both in Paris and in all the cities of France, which are always crowded with people; but also by the famous open air cafes which in warm weather have tables out to the curb, and by the street displays of merchandise. In the cities large stores daily put table after table of goods out on the sidewalk, and take them in at night. In the towns the many market places, flower, vegetable and otherwise, bespeak the same love of the out-doors. In Grenoble, even on the cold winter days booths were set up on the village squares, and merchandise of all kinds was sold. In private homes when the weather permits, the French eat outside, whether it be in the gardens of the villas or on the narrow window balconies of the apartment houses. It is indeed an odd sight to see a table set for a meal on a tiny balcony two or three stories above a city street. I wonder that France did not have pent-houses long before we Americans.
It seems to be innate, this trait of the French people, and it fits in with their con- ception of how the greatest happiness can be got in life, by a leisurely existence with time to work a little, to contemplate, to converse and be gracious. As an American woman, married to a Frenchman puts it: "The tempo of life in France makes for true enjoyment. In America some inward unrest, some need of excitement seems always to be driving us on. . . . When I was first married, twenty minutes was the longest time I could happily spend in a chair on the boulevard. . . . Now I feel with satisfaction that I could spend unlimited time absorbing one single 'cafe noir' and watching life go by. I have found the inner peace which enables me to enjoy an endless series of moments each for itself."
The longest part of my sojourn in France, about eight months, was spent in Grenoble. A city of some eighty thousand inhabitants, it is situated in the ancient province of Dauphine in Southeastern France, in the department of the Isere, which gets its name from the pretty little river running through the town. Beautiful snow-capped moun- tains stretch into the distance as far as one can see, a superb and ethereal setting which is unforgettable. Glove making is the chief industry of Grenoble. It is important histor- ically for its role in the French Revolution, and is knwn in the literary world as the birthplace of Stendhal (Henri-Marie Beyle) to whom a museum was dedicated while I was there. Its sporting resources and its University are probably its greatest attractions for foreigners. To talk seriously in Grenoble is to talk sports — winter sports: skiing, ice- skating, ice hockey, and tobogganing. The natives themselves are almost all amateurs
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
of one or the other of these sports, and many Scandinavian athletes come each winter to participate in the exhibitions held in the resorts around Grenoble. Monsieur Desclos said to me when I called to see him at the National Office of Universities in Paris, "You must send me a picture of yourself from Grenoble, standing on your head in the snow with your skiis on." Needless to say, I was reminded of his words many times, while I was learning to ski. The season is on from November until late March, and hardly a week-end passes that one of the Alpine clubs does not organize an excursion. The buses and tramways leave about 6 A. M. and by the time the sun is up they have reached the glorious heights of the skiing resorts. From a distance they resemble giant ant-hills, the white snow is so thickly dotted with the "Skieurs" in their blue and brown suits. The patience of the true lover of the sport is limitless, and the great recompense is to finally be able to descend the steep slopes with the perfect poise, precision and grace of the expert. It is amusing and exhilarating, and both young and old have unbounded enthusiasm for it. I saw a man fall and break his leg. His one regret was that he would not be able to ski any more that season. It amounts almost to a cult. It establishes an intimacy be- tween one and the Alps. It is a manner of addressing oneself to the heart of the snows. It presents new worlds to conquer.
Courses for foreign students were offered at the University of Grenoble, before they were offered at any other of the provincial universities. Consequently, student life in Grenoble is unique. The foreign students: English, American, Oriental, Algerian and from all of the European countries, make up a distinct and separate part of the University. They attend the same lecture courses, and even in the small classes of five or six, you may find yourself with an Italian, a Yugoslavian, a German, a Dutchman, etc. What a singu- lar privilege it is, too, to know these young people from all countries and climes. They are intelligent and attractive. A spirit of good fellowship prevails, and fosters friendships which are certainly making for international peace and harmony. One has little contact with the French students in the University, unless one follows courses other than those offered to foreigners. There is, however, an English speaking club for English, American and French students. It meets twice a month and books are reviewed or plays given. On one occasion Mrs. Arnold Bennett spoke.
The organization of European Universities is somewhat different from that of our own institutions of learning. Consequently it is a bit difficult at first to get adjusted and oriented. Little or no guidance is given by faculty members, the inference being that you come there knowing what you want to study. Hence what is accomplished depends upon the individual's own initiative, research and industry. Such a system necessitates a cultivation of the habit of thinking for one's self, "that habit which is the very soul of liberty." One might say that there is no beginning or ending of studies, and preeminence is given to a full and rounded development of the human faculties. "The ideal of culture is almost a religion on which all are agreed."
While in Grenoble I stayed with a family of three on the rue Renauldon in one of the oldest sections of the town. From the balcony outside my window I could look down on the narrow little street. Shop-keepers called to one another from their door-steps. The passersby were mostly peasant women with their great shawls and huge baskets, and little boys dressed in black smocks and berets with long loaves of bread under their arms, their wooden shoes clattering on the cobble stones as they ran. Through Madame Blondeau, I met many charming and interesting French people. From time to time I was invited to their homes for a "gouter" or tea. These teas were given by mothers and daughters together. Usually everyone talked and knit, unless the hostess had arranged for someone to sing or play.
I must tell you of an unusual coincidence. I went frequently to the home of a University Professor's wife, an American woman. She married while studying in Gren- oble, and always gives a cordial welcome to her compatriots. My first visit there I met
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 19
her mother, a woman of about eighty, who has since died, and found to our mutual sur- prise that she had been reared in Southwest Virginia, in my own County. She had met my mother years ago, and her mother had named my home town, Marion. She spoke very highly of Agnes Scott, and was delighted to hear that Miss Alexander had been my French teacher. She had known her father and her family.
My Christmas vacation began in a very unusual manner. The night of December 23 rd. I left Grenoble with another American girl for Rome. We changed trains about midnight at Chambery, a junction in the Alps, for Turin, Italy. Christmas Eve morn- ing at five-thirty we awoke to find ourselves in Dijon, France, half-way to Paris. We had taken the Turino-Paris train, instead of the Paris-Turino. No conductor had come through to see our tickets, and sorry was our plight. We explained to the station master that we had made a great mistake. "Tout chemin mene a Rome" (all roads lead to Rome) , he replied laughing, and wrote something on our tickets which enabled us to take the next train (six hours later) for Rome without paying extra: a Christmas present from the French government, we called it! Thus en route to Rome we visited Dijon.
My year was full of novel experiences and I have returned with varied impressions. I have hardly known where to begin, and what to include. I recall a talk for students, which I heard at the American church in Paris. The speaker told the story of the Rus- sian Peasant, who desired great possessions. A wealthy nobleman hearing of his wish, offered him all of the land that he could traverse in one day, starting at sunrise and returning to the village before nightfall. Late afternoon found the peasant far from the village, for each time that he started to turn back, he saw in the distance some fair meadow, or wooded glen which he wanted to include. He quickened his footsteps. He ran, and just at dusk he staggered into the town and fell dead from exhaustion. "Paris has so much to offer," continued the speaker, "art, history, science, society — you cannot include everything. You must choose a few things."
In writing to you about France, I have chosen to tell you of the things which meant most to me, and I hope that they will prove interesting to you.
FROM THE ALUMNI FEATURES SERVICE
"I have, I confess, been somewhat amused by some of the statements that have been made that colleges and universities are hotbeds of radicalism. I believe that any one who has had experience with them and who has seen the extraordinary difficulty with which changes come about in them could scarcely share in such a feeling . . .
"On the whole, it seems a fair generalization, subject, of course, to many exceptions and qualifications, that our system of higher education performs the social function which it does perform today more because of outside than of inside pressure and influences. It has been shaped, in other words, more largely by the desires of students, of parents and of public opinion generally, in its main objectives and purposes, than by those of its faculties . . .
"Our system of higher education, considered as a whole, is today one of our most definitely motivated, least flexible and highly static of our social institutions." — Harry Woodburn Chase, President of New York University.
« News From the Alumnae Office »
We Made the 1934 Reunion Supper:
Dorothy Cassel, Sybil Grant, Gladys Pratt, Rossie Ritchie, Mary McDonald, Kathryn Maness, Louise Schuessler, Alma Groves, Elinor Hamilton, Mary Hamilton, Isabel Lowrance, Gussie Rose Riddle, Mary Ames, Elizabeth Hickson, Dorothy Potts, Rudene Taffar, Martha England, Elizabeth John- son, Isabella Wilson, Elizabeth Winn, Sarah Austin. This reunion event took place on Saturday, December 1, in the Alumnae House. Kathryn Maness was the efficient chairman on arrangements.
The Glee Club, under the direction of Mr. Lewis H. Johnson, gave two programs of Christmas carols on December 16, the first in the morning at the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, the second in the Agnes Scott Chapel at seven-thirty that night. The college String Ensemble, directed by Mr. Christian W. Dieckmann, accompanied the Glee Club at the Christmas Vesper Service.
The Granddaughters' Club entertained their escorts at dinner in the Alumnae House on Thursday evening, December 6, at six-thirty o'clock. There were seventeen couples. Chairmen for the occasion were: Entertainment, Barton Jackson, '37, and Kathleen Daniel, '37; Dates, Fannie B. Harris, '37, Mary Lyon Hull, '38, and Lo- raine Smith, '36; Decorations, Elizabeth Forman, '36, Virginia Gaines, '36, and Lu- cile Cairns, '37.
The Atlanta Club Group under the chairmanship of Cora (Morton) Durrett, '24, and the co-chairmanship of Margaret (McDow) M^cDougall, '24, gave five dozen cups and saucers and forty teaspoons to the Alumnae House in November. This is the first of the working groups to com- plete its project, and its donation was most acceptable. This group cooperated with a gioup of Decatur alumnae in entertain- ing at tea for the faculty on November 20.
A Fellowship for Women Graduates who
give promise of usefulness in the public service is offered by Barnard College. The award is $1,300, the graduate study to be carried on at an approved college or uni- versity in one or more of the related fields of History, Economics, Government and Social Science. This is open to graduates since June, 1929. Applications must be filed with the Faculty of Barnard not later than March 1, 1935. Further information will ibe furnished on request by the alumnae office.
Pi Alpha Phi has debated with a team of English debaters and a team from Emory University. The team against Emory will debate against Wesleyan Col- lege in February.
The French, Spanish, and German Clubs
sang carols on the campus on the eve of the Christmas holidays, December 18.
The Boarding Sophomores were enter- tained at a series of parties by the local chapter of Mortar Board in groups from December 11 through 14. Students from Tech, Emory and Columbia Seminary were invited as dates for the sophomores.
Members of the Senior Class were honor guests at a reception at which the faculty entertained for them on Saturday night, December 15.
Faculty who have attended recent con- ventions are: Professor Mary Stuart Mac- Dougall of the Biology Department and Associate Professor T. M. Whitiker at- tended a meeting of the American As- sociation for the Advancement of Science in Pittsburgh from December 27th through the 29th. Both of them presented papers, Dr. MacDougall's "Cytological Studies of Genus Chilodonella with Special Reference to Chromatin Elimination from the Mac- ronuceus During Division," and Dr. Whit- ker's "Plant Cytology." Professor Philip G. Davidson of the History Department at- tended the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American History Association in Washing- ton, D. C, from December 27th through the 29th. Professor George P. Hayes of the English Department and Professor Muriel Hai-n of the German Department attended the annual meeting of the Modern Lan- guage Association at Swarthmore and Philadelphia, Penn., from December 27th through the 29th.
$* * * *
Faculty Children enjoy a dancing class with Miss Harriette Haynes of the Physical Education Department. In December the parents of this group were invited to be guests of the dancing class, at which time Miss Haynes entertained the children and their parents at an informal tea. ^ * * *
The Georgia A. A. U. W. convention will be held in Atlanta on January 18th and 19th. The College will entertain the group at lunch on the nineteenth, and the Alumnae Association will be hostesses at after-din- ner coffee.
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
21
The Book Exhibit during Thanksgiving week-end was most appreciated on the campus. Many attended this exhibit and enjoyed seeing a vast number of inter- esting books, old and new, fiction and non-fiction. Janef Preston, '21, and Miss Louise McKinney of the English Depart- ment were responsible for the feast to book lovers.
The Regional Conference of Alumni Sec- retaries will be held in Atlanta on Febru- ary 1st and 2nd, with the Alumni Secretary of Emory University, Bob Whitaker, and the Agnes Scott Alumnae Secretary, Dor- othy Hutton, '29, as co-hosts. The Alumnae Association will entertain at tea for this group on the afternoon of the second.
the Kappa Alpha Theta: "Here is what happens to an average thousand names on a mailing list after three years, according to Printer's Ink: 410 have changed ad- dresses from one to four times; 261 have moved to parts unknown; 7 have died; 1 has gone to jail. Examination of our own mailing list gives the further informa- tion that of the 410 who have changed ad- dresses from one to four times, 410 have forgotten to notify us of same from one to four times."
New Year's Resolutions are now in order. If this copy of the Quarterly comes to you by virtue of your 1934 membership, let us hope that the next one will come by rea- son of your 1935 check!
The Founder's Day Program will be broadcast over WSB on February 22. The exact time will be announced in February, and it is hoped that an hour for a good reception of the program can be secured.
The 1934 Silhouette was awarded a cup given by the National Students' Publica- tion Association for ail-American rating. This is the fourth successive year that this cup has been awarded to Agnes Scott.
The Birmingham Club has elected the following officers for the year: President, Florence Kleybecker, '33; Vice-President, Olivia Swann, '26; Secretary, Cornelia Cartland, ex-'24; Treasurer, Mary Ray Dobyns, '28. This group entertained at tea in honor of Elinor Hamilton, '34, Field Alumnae Secretary, in November. Those present were: Frances (Burwell) Chisolm, Institute; Pau'ine Willoughby, '30; Eleanor Bonham, '30; Lucy (Durr) Dunn, '19; Laura (Oliver) Fuller, '22; Cornelia Cart- land, ex-'24; Margaret (Griffin) Williams, '24; Frances Bitzer, '25; Sallie (Horton) Lay, '25; Florence Kleybecker, '33. * * * *
Postage on returned Quarterlies is get- ting to be quite an item. Please remember to notify the office of your change of address, so that these can reach you with- out delay and be sent without extra charge from the office. However, we do not seem to be alone in this respect. We quote from
The Anniston, Ala., Alumnae entertained in November in honor of the Field Alumnae Secretary, Elinor Hamilton, '34. Those present were: Mary Evelyn (Arnold) Barker, ex-'24; Mildred Goodrich, ex-'20; Caroline (Agee) Rowan, '21; Rosa White, '29; Virginia Ordway, '24.
* * * *
The Field Alumnae Secretary has met
with unusual success in her trips so far this fall. The alumnae in Alabama, Geor- gia, North Carolina, in the towns visited, have proved most cooperative. A word of thanks for them is only a small measure of the gratitude felt by the office and the College for their splendid help.
The New York Club met for tea in De- cember. Sara Townsend, '30, is the newly
elected president.
* * * *
Adele Arbuckle, '31, was honored in a re- cent issue of the Davidson College alumni publication. An attractive snapshot was made more explicit by commendation of her fine work in the alumni office.
* * * *
The New Orleans Club had a luncheon meeting in October at Arnaud's Restaurant and a luncheon in December as guests of Stuart (Sanderson) Dixon, ex-'18.
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The Washington Club has changed its schedule of meetings to a luncheon hour, since so many of the group are working.
'Dates to <rKgmember
February 22 and 23 , 1935!
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Published in Nov., Jan., April and July by the Agnes Scott Alumnae Association Entered as second class matter under the Act of Congress, August, 1912.
Volume XIII April, 193 5 Number 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Recent Portrait of Dr. J. R. McCain Front Cover
The Woman's College and Its Alumnae 1
Dr. Emma May Laney
Changing Standards of Modern Governments 4
Dr. Philip Davidson
Current Thinking Among Economists 6
Dr. Mercer Evans
Founder's Day Greeting to the Alumnae 13
Dean Nannette Hopkins
A Message from the Trustees 14
Mr. George Winship
The Building Program of Agnes Scott 15
President J. R. McCain
A Word about the Alumnae Week-End 17
Lucfle Alexander, '11
Changing Emphases in Philosophy 18
Dr. Leroy Loemker
Practice of Medicine in the Future 2 3
Dr. Roy R. Kracke
Changing Standards in Literature 31
Dr. George P. Hayes
Masterpiece 37
Clara Elizabeth (Whips) Dunn, '16
Through Literature to Life 41
Mrs. J. O. Martin
Founder's Day at Home and Abroad 45
Sara Cook, '3 5
Registration for the Fourth Alumnae Week-End 47
Message from the Alumnae Office Back Cover
Dorothy Hutton, '29
THE WOMAN'S COLLEGE AND ITS ALUMNAE
Dr. Emma May Laney Associate Professor of English at Agnes Scott College Little more than a century ago, in 1819 to be exact, Frances Willard was so bold as to go before the legislature of New York with a plan for improving "female educa- tion." Although a few academies for women already existed, notably Elizabeth Academy in Mississippi in 1817, none of them was the equal of existing schools for men, and Frances Willard's step was the real beginning of a movement that resulted soon after the middle of the century in the founding of Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith, and that has produced the numerous liberal arts colleges for women all over the country today.
Momentous changes have come about in woman's education in this brief century. In those first years there were persistent questions. "How much ignorance can woman part with and yet keep her delicacy?" "How much knowledge can the female head hold?" "Can woman retain her health and yet become educated?" These questions not only have been answered but now seem absurd.
Changes in endowment and physical equipment have also been great. The $2,000 which Frances Willard after much work obtained for Troy Academy has been increased to the millions of today. The two hooks on the door which were Matthew Vassar's pro- vision for taking care of feminine clothes have given place in many colleges to luxurious suites, with the result that prospective students often select their college on the basis of its private baths; the one tennis set for which the founder of Wellesley had to send to France, since none was obtainable in the states, has been replaced by swimming pools and gymnasiums that rival those of the best country club. The board in one college described as ".75 per week for vegetable diet and .S7}/4 for animal once a day," has given place to meals planned by dietitians and served in beautiful dining halls.
In academic aspects the colleges have progressed proportionately. The four graduates whom the first president of Vassar doubted the "propriety" of calling bachelors of art have grown to the thousands of bachelors of art and of science who in acadamic robes receive their degrees each June. Curricula have been diversified • from the half a dozen subjects of early days to the hundreds of today. Examinations have become matters of course instead of affairs of public interest as when Frances Willard described the parents, the elite of Troy, the school principals, and the legislators who came to hear the girls "scan Latin verse, solve problems in Euclid, go smoothly through fractions, and read their own compositions in a promiscuous assemblage."
In the midst of growth and progress that have changed woman's education from an adventure to a commonplace, one thing has remained unchanged: the aim of higher education for woman. In Troy Female Academy, the purpose was to secure for women "full opportunities of learning as a human right . . . that they may be the means of the greatest possible happiness of which they are capable, both as to what they enjoy and what they communicate." Holyoke phrased its aim in 1836 as to give women an education "similar to that which their brothers could obtain at Harvard and Yale," and went on to state that it was no part of its design to teach young ladies domestic work, which is important but which it is not the part of the "literary college" to teach. In the words of Matthew Vassar in 1865, ". . . woman having received from her Creator the same intellectual constitution as man, has the same right to intellectual culture and development."
From its inception, then, the liberal arts college for woman has been determinedly a "place of the mind." No fear about womanly charm, no compunction about physical weakness, no anxiety about what might happen to the puddings and pies when women became scholars, deterred the founders who pursued the Greek ideal "Knowledge is the only virtue" and the humanistic end, the development of their students as persons. The
2 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
1934 catalogues of these colleges, the convocation addresses of their presidents, the testi- mony of their alumnae — all convince us that while courses, methods, and policies have changed and adapted themselves to changing times — while the emphasis in one decade has been on the classics, in another on the social sciences, again on the natural sciences, and today increasingly on the arts — the purpose has remained essentially the same. Here we are not in the realm of changing standards.
It is in the light of this persistent ideal that the answer to the question, "What does the liberal arts college expect of its alumnae?" must be sought. And that answer is important since it is agreed that the success or failure of college is to be measured by its graduates and since President Aydelotte of Swarthmore, speaking at the Atlanta meeting of the American Association of Colleges in January, said that the conception of the liberal arts college is breaking down because it is too often not realized in its graduates.
"Too often not realized in its graduates," he said, and immediately there flashed through my mind the picture of the alumna who hoped that her election to Phi Beta Kappa would not be announced in the public press since such an announcement would decrease her popularity at certain dances to which she had been invited, and the picture of another alumna who after having heard Edna St. Vincent Millay read her poetry immediately classed her with Eddie Guest, and finally of the rich man's son, a graduate of Yale, who according to his account in the January Forum bitterly regrets the money spent on his education since he cannot now earn a salary equal to the interest on that amount and therefore finds himself without anything to which he may cling "no gods to worship . . . almost everything in which we have been taught to place our faith swept away . . . confused and bewildered."
Each of these has fallen short of the Alma Mater's expectations. The first failed to cherish the intellectual attainment that was hers, wished instead to assume what James Truslow Adams has called the "mucker pose," to be one of the crowd, not one of there elected to uphold inner and intangible values. "The college has a right to expect," says President Neilson of Smith, "that its graduates should figure in the community as up- holders of spiritual and intellectual values." Nor does this imply, I should like to add, any lack of the grace and charm that bring popularity at commencement dances.
The second has failed in discrimination. Living for four years with the "best that has been thought and said" has not taught her to distinguish between the real and the sentimental, the fine and the shoddy. The books she reads, the plays she sees, the music she hears will be those acclaimed by the crowd, not those whose excellence commends them. Yet, in the words of Everett Dean Martin, "If education is for anything, it is that we learn to choose the good."
The rich man's son I have cited because his lot of having looked forward to an oc- cupation no longer open to him has been the lot of many an alumna since 1929 and his bitterness and disillusionment in the face of a tottering world is exactly the opposite of what is to be expected of one who has experienced the discipline of the intellectual life. In contrast to his emotional outcry, the college expects its daughters to find knowl- edge a guide in such a crisis. Do you remember the fifteenth century morality play in which Everyman is summoned suddenly by Death. He calls in vain on Kindred, Fel- lowship, and Good Deeds for assistance, but in his despair Knowledge comes, "I wyll go with the, and be thy gyde, In thy most nede to go by thy syde." The alumna in the midst of the emergencies of today may find in Knowledge, by which is meant not an accumulation of facts but a way of approach by the intellect, a solution to her dilemma. I have known many who did this. One had majored in English with the hope of teaching it; finding herself unable to discipline high school girls and boys, she turned to advertising. Another who chose kindergarten work as a vocation, when
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 3
the depression closed kindergartens in her community, used her knowledge to make her- self invaluable in a book store for children. Another baffled by her own ill-adjusted child sought in Child Psychology a solution to her problem. Such initiative and adapt- ability college expects of an alumna whether her emergency is in the home or in an oc- cupation.
Even though she finds no solution to her economic problem — as we must admit that she often will not — the alumna guided by knowledge will not cry out in bewilderment and confusion as did the rich man's son but will be fortified by some understanding of the situation. She may have forgot the facts of history — the date of the battle of Waterloo, the terms of Lee's surrender, the conditions of the Versailles treaty — but she will be armed by the perspective of history, what Professor Torrance in a recent Phi Beta Kappa address called a realization of historic values. Knowing that civilization has marched forward through the collapse of one social order and the rise of another, through the failure of one economic system and the institution of another, she will see the present crisis as no worse for her than was the Civil War for her ancestors two generations ago. Such insight will give her the serenity and courage with which college expects its grad- uates to face contemporary life.
Again, the alumna guided by Knowledge will not say with the rich man's son when the means for buying a new car or an expensive fur coat or theatre tickets fail, "All is gone." She will possess pleasures "beyond time's throwing." Her delight in reading, in listening to music, in seeing the first signs of spring are not dependent on her bank account. College expects the alumna to find in the pleasures of the mind and in the response to beauty resources against the vicissitudes of life.
In short, the college expects its alumnae in the contemporary world to be the kind of persons Charles W. Eliot described in an essay which most of you read in your Freshman year of college, women of "quick perceptions, broad sympathies, and wide affinities; responsive but independent; self-reliant, but deferential; loving truth and candor, but also moderation and proportion; courageous but gentle; not finished but perfecting."
While from the very beginning the enrichment of personality has been the main objective of the woman's college, this aim has never been without its social implications. Frances Willard stated in 1819 that woman was to be educated that she might be "of the greatest possible use." Mary Lyon desired in 1836 to "present the church and the world, as efficient Christian workers, a body of thoroughly educated and as truly con- secrated, young women." Recently a college president has said that "the business of a college is to develop personalities that are capable of large participation in life and of large contribution to life." But more and more we are realizing that the present crisis is not a crisis of machines but a crisis of character. Woman's activity may be in pol- itics, in social welfare, in literature, or in the home, but whatever form that activity takes, its success will be measured by her ability to face a changing world with the insight and integrity that spring from knowledge and the love of truth. I can do no better in concluding than quote to you the lines written by Chaucer more than five hundred years ago:
"Tempest thee noght al croked to redresse, In trust of hir that turneth as a bal; Gret reste stant in litel besinesse, And eek be war to sporne ageyn an al; Stryve noght, as doth the crokke with the wal. Daunte thyself, that dauntest otheres dede; And trouthe shal delivre, hit is no drede."
Footnote: My statements about the early history of woman's colleges are based on Before Vassar Opened, by J. M. Taylor; Pioneers of Woman's Education, edited by Willystine Goodsell, and numerous histories of Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith.
CHANGING STANDARDS OF MODERN GOVERNMENTS
Dr. Philip Davidson
Professor of History at Agnes Scott College
(Author's Note: This is simply a rough summary, greatly abbreviated, of the original
talk delivered on Friday of Alumnae Week-End. )
"Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better of equal hope in the world?" These words from Lincoln's first Inaugural are within the memory of nearly two million living Americans, yet within three short generations they are boldly and defiantly challenged. Those of the old order cry, "If man is not fitted to govern himself, is he then fitted to be charged with the government of others, or do we have angels in the form of men to govern us? Let history answer the question." But they are not heeded, and those reared in the land of liberty and justice for all see strange, monstrous tyrannies arising, which know neither liberty nor justice. Do these new governments mean the end of the democratic ideal?
We can best understand their meaning as we see the trend of the last five hundred years in the history of man's relations to government and society.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century and lasting well down into the eighteenth, there existed in Europe the institution of the powerful, highly centralized state, oper- ated by and in the interests of a close oligarchy of large merchants and land owners. The state had developed out of the crude materials of feudalism, a system which had resisted the centralizing influences of the young national governments. It was neces- sary, therefore, for the state to crush ruthlessly the rights of the old feudal heirarchy; individual rights soon failed to exist and the system was supported by a complete philos- ophy of society and government. "In every state there must be a supreme authority to which all are subject. The powers that be are ordained of God. Resist them at the peril of thy soul." Treason to the state became the greatest conceivable crime, and raison d'etat an all-sufficient excuse. But inevitably there arose serious protests against this restrictive system operated in the interest of so few, and underneath the controlling minority there grew up a rebellious majority, made up of the middle class, who de- manded a share in the government. So persistent and so threatening did the demand become, that those in control attempted to stave off the impending revolution by gifts or concessions to the middle class, gifts in the form of trade legislation, commercial privileges, and so on. This process has been called paternalism. But the middle class was not to be satisfied with part measures, and in a series of revolutions in the late eigh- teenth century, notably in France, the middle class won a decisive victory, ushering in the second period of the trend we are trying to establish.
This period lasted roughly from 1789 to the last war, and its characteristics, es- pecially in their last aspects from 1900 to 1929, are the ones with which we are familiar. Essentially every phase of life was dominated by middle class ideology — middle class institutions, middle class religion, middle class virtues, middle, class literature. All was based essentially upon the theory that man is inherently good, and that this inherently good man, pursuing his own advantage without let or hindrance, can do no wrong, and that if all these inherently good men are pursuing their advantage without doing wrong all will be benefited — thus is the greatest good of the greatest number achieved. Bol- stered by the eighteenth century philosophy of government and society and the vista of infinite progress opened by science, the idealogy was accepted as ultimate truth, and the middle class seemed permanently enthroned. But the rights of man soon destroyed the rights of society, just as the rights of government in the previous period had destroyed the rights of man. Liberty became license, the license of the economically powerful to exploit the weaker, to lay waste the resources of the land, and to corrupt every phase of life in their own interests. And just as before, underneath this vested
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly S
class there arose the voice of dissent, the threatened rebellion of the oppressed — labor. And as before, those in control attempted to stave off the impending revolution by paternalism, this time by gifts to labor in the form of labor legislation, employers liability, old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and similar laws. As these forces were working themselves out, somewhat normally, the World War came and delivered the coup de grace to the ruling middle class. The war did not cause the economic col- lapse of capitalism, nor did it cause the sudden rise of labor to a threatening position — it simply accelerated movements well under way before the war.
If I have read aright the trend of the last five hundred years, the new governments of Italy, Germany, Russia, and the New Deal in the United States, result from the upward drive of labor against the vested middle class and the economic collapse of the middle class capitalistic system, or in larger terms, from the attempt of society to recover the rights taken from it by unbridled individualism. In a sense, the governments of Italy, Germany, and the United States are counter-revolutionary, that is, they represent efforts to prevent a labor revolution, while the government of Russia is a revolutionary labor government. From a broader point of view, however, the so-called counter- revolutionary governments are more than mere governments of opposition, essentially conservative in character, for they have a constructive program to offer in the crisis, a program which in some instances has much more than the interests of one class in view. Let us examine the standards or ideals of these new governments and the agencies they have set up.
There are striking similarities among these governments in spite of obvious diversi- ties. The fundamental principle behind them all, for example, is the authoritarian or totalitarian state, even though in the Marxian system, the theoretical basis of Russian communism, the ideal is the stateless order. The state in the new school of thought is more than a mere political institution, it is a mystical entity composed of the mass of the people who make it up, and is superior to any individual within the group. The supremacy of the state, to which all are subject, is the dominant ideal of Fascism, Nazi- ism, and, as I have indicated, in actuality that of Communism. The state, therefore, is concerned with the welfare of society as a whole as opposed to the private interests of any one individual or group within the state, and no one has the right to injure society or the state. Here then is the culmination of the third step of the major trend of political history since 1500: just as government usurped the rights of individuals, so individuals usurped the rights of society, and now society, through the instrument of the supreme state, is attempting to recover the rights taken from it by individuals.
To put into actual effect the ideal of the supreme state operated in the interests of society as a whole, these governments have evolved certain agencies, which again show striking similarities the one to the other. The major political institution is the party — the Communist party in Russia, the Fascist party in Italy, the Nazi party in Germany, and perhaps the Democratic party in the United States. So vital in the scheme of things is the party that it has become identified with the state, and for all purposes of legislation and determination of policy it is the state. In point of fact, the ideal of the party leaders is that the party shall become coterminous with the state. The party, then, controls every phase of life, cultural, religious, social, and economic, within the nation. It is the chief instrument of the authoritarian state. For our purposes it will be sufficient to describe only its control of the economic activities of the nation. In Italy the method applied to economic problems, especially those relating to industry, is called the corporate system. Each industry, after a conference of employees, employers, and capitalists, draws up an agreement fixing wages, hours of labor, and the price of the finished product. This agreement is then approved by the government and is enforced by both the industry and the state. If no agreement can be reached, the state may set the forms of the contract. No strikes, boycotts, lockouts, or other forms of industrial
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disturbances are allowed, as under the guiding principle of the Fascist state, no one group has the right to disturb the welfare of the nation. In Germany very much the same system is used, and here in the United States the code system so closely resembles the corporate method of Italy that I have practically described it above. In these coun- tries there is the obvious attempt to salvage the best of the old economic system and to preserve as far as possible private initiative. In Russia a central economic planning board regulates closely both production and consumption. Here as in every other field there is a common approach to common problems, because behind the particular insti- tution there is in reality a common purpose.
Here is the trend; where will it lead us? Clearly to one of two major catastrophes. The glorification of the national state in the German and Italian systems, by cutting across class lines and along national lines, will lead inevitably to serious if not fatal national conflicts. On the other hand, if the Russian ideal predominates and expands, its ideal of the classless, stateless world, by cutting across national lines and along class lines, will lead equally inevitably to even more bitter class wars. Which alternative will eventuate, and when, depends upon so many delicately adjusted and complicated factors that not even the vaguest answer is possible; but unless we can combat these major forces one or the other will surely come, and that all too soon.
To avert the impending crisis there are two, and only two, remedies we can apply. The first if applied in time will avert the threatening national conflicts, and consists in strengthening immediately existing international organizations for the settlement of disputes — the League of Nations, the Permanent Court of International Justice, and similar institutions. The second remedy, far less tangible but not less important, may solve the problem of the class war. It consists in judging all our domestic policies by the one standard of the welfare of society as a whole; we must realize that the old free days are gone, and that we must hereafter think in terms of the rights of society and the duties of individuals. We must subordinate ourselves and our individual in- terests to the larger interests of the whole group, so that at the least, government for the people shall not perish from the earth.
IN MEMORIAM
Miss Jennie Smith, secretary to the President of Agnes Scott College for twenty-five years, died at an Atlanta hospital on Saturday, March 16. In appreciation to her untiring service under Dr. F. H. Gaines and Dr. J. R. McCain, which ended with her illness in the 1931-1932 session, in this space in our Alumnae Quarterly dedicated.
CURRENT THINKING AMONG ECONOMISTS
Dr. Mercer Evans Associate Professor of Economics at Emory University
Since the coming of the depression, economic thinking has become an important part of the life of every American citizen. During the past five years nearly everyone has had his attention focussed upon economic problems. Nearly everyone has suffered in one way or another from the general economic condition, and has, therefore, begun to wonder what is the trouble with the economic system; has tried to learn something about it, how it ordinarily functions, and what is causing it to function so poorly.
Before the arrival of Mr. Roosevelt, the country was over-run with economists, who had just been discovered by the public, or who had just discovered themselves and pro- ceeded to let the public know of their existence. In 1932, for example, nearly every busi- ness man, every banker, every manufacturer, every journalist, every newspaperman, broadly speaking, was offering himself as an economist, offering an explanation of the economic depression, of the stock market debacle, or of international trade conditions, and the bewildered public was hanging upon the words of anyone who was denominated, or who denominated himself, an economist. I recall that at that time some of us were not only interested, but amused, at the rapid multiplication of the tribe, and that we were no little concerned over the widening inclusiveness of the term.
In that year I remember that I undertook to speak before a local woman's club on the topic, "Economists and Economists," for the purpose of differentiating among the varieties of the tribe. I tried to point out the difference between the trained students of economic institutions and forces, and the naive amateurs who were rushing into print. I call them naive amateurs, because most of them had made no study of the history of our economic institutions, had no historical perspective, and knew little or nothing and cared less, about what had been thought, tried, or discovered during past centuries. They would segregate one minor or major force, inadequately analyze it, hit upon some little understood panacea, and proclaim a remedy for all our economic maladies.
When Mr. Roosevelt became President, he called upon several professional, trained economists for advice and assistance. At once they received a recognition which set them apart from the amateurs of the press and the weekly journals. But confusion was only added to confusion as these trained experts offered conflicting interpretations, and more particularly, conflicting proposals and opinions concerning proposals for the way out of the depression.
Eventually the confusion became so great, the remedies tried so diverse, the conse- quences so embarrassing, that the prestige of the profession began rapidly to diminish. So unpopular is it to be an "economist" just now, that the newspapermen and journalists, the business men and public relations representatives of private corporations have dropped the title. Even the trained professional students of the field are now seeking refuge from the public gaze.
This morning, I want to restrict my discussion to an effort to clear up the confusion that has developed in the layman's mind from the paradoxical contradictions which appear in those views of economists still reaching the public press.
In the first place, I want to separate the professional clan from the amateurs. A professional economist, as I suggested above, is one who has carefully studied the history and development of economic institutions since the beginning of modern economic life, — since, at least, say, the fourteenth century. A genuine economist is acquainted, for example, with the origin of money. He knows that money originated simply as a convenient commodity which could be used as a measure of value for varying kinds of goods. It had no magic connected with it. It had no peculiar relationship to price levels. It involved no banks, for there were no banks. It had no connection with business cycles and economic depressions, for business cycles did not exist and economic depres-
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sions were consequences solely of wars, drouths, floods, and other natural phenomena. The trained economist knows this: and is acquainted with the slow development of a state coined money, of a banking system (out of the simple practices of the goldsmith), of fiduciary money, of the extension of credit, of bank currency and bank deposit cur- rency in the form of deposits against which checks can be written. He knows of the gradual development of money as an economic force in itself, affecting price levels, affect- ing the development of capitalistic enterprises, encouraging the development of the corporate form of business organization, inducing the development of a wage system of impersonal labor relationships, and of widespread and impersonal markets.
Similarly, as the genuine economist is aware of the nature of money as an institution, its significance, its force in the economic organization, he is acquainted with the develop- ment and nature of banking, with the development, expansion, contraction, and modi- fication of property rights. He is acquainted with the historical position of people as workers: as wage laborers, savers, investors, capitalists, and entrepreneurs. He is ac- quainted with the development of international trade, of the international money market, of the forces affecting relative prices in the international goods market; and so on.
On the other hand, there are various groups of amateurs. Most of them have not studied economic history, most of them do not have a perspective which gives a realistic understanding of the nature and significance of current institutions. Most of them are acquainted only with what is in the modern world, not with how it came into being. Most of them do not comprehend the complicated interrelationships of forces. Most of them are acquainted with and see only minute segments of our whole economic life. They understand the internal workings of the institutions with which they are con- nected: with these they are much better acquainted than the professional economist. They know the internal organization of their enterprises, they know the business prac- tices, and they see some of the impacts of other institutions upon their own activities. But understanding the whole, they do not and cannot. Nor can they be expected to: they have been compelled to concentrate their attention upon the mechanics of their own entereprises, their noses have been kept to their own grindstones, they have not had the time nor the opportunity to see the whole economic system. They are like wood-cutters: they cannot see the forests for the trees, and it is not their business to see the forests. That is for other people, who have nothing to do but to climb the mountains, soar in aeroplanes, and study the whole topography from a disinterested distance.
To make clear the distinction, perhaps I should offer a few examples:
( 1 ) There is the business man who is well acquainted with his business, from the managerial and profit-making point of view. Of the millions of economic cells in the world, he is well acquainted with his own, and, perhaps, with a few others like his. He cannot see all of the cells because he is too busy, and it is not his business to try to see them all. He cannot even see the whole of his own cell. Each cell is many- sided: there is the financial side, the market side, the labor side, etc. Furthermore, each side of the cell has at least two faces, an inside and an outside. The business man, being on the inside of a cell — a part of one of its sides, cannot even see both faces of the various sides of his own cell; and especially is it difficult for him to see all of the forces bearing upon these sides. Then, too, the cells are continuously changing, evolving new shapes, sizes, relative proportions, thicknesses and colors. Only an ac- quaintance with the historical development of cells in general can give him a compre- hension of what might be taking place. This he normally does not have.
(2) There are the newspaper writers — untrained reporters, editors, financial writers, statistical summarizers, etc. These men, at most, have tried to study only one phase of the complicated structure of the economic organism. Almost never have they studied
The Agnes Scott" Alumnae Quarterly 9
the historial evolution of any of its parts. Most of them have specialized on the financial sides of the various cells. Some have specialized on the market sides. Almost none has studied the labor sides.
Others, instead of studying certain sides of many kinds of cells, have concentrated on certain groups of cells — as agriculture, banking, steel manufacturing, international trade, or stock markets.
Mentioning names, perhaps B. C. Forbes, Merle Rukeyser and Roger Babson are out- standing examples of this category. The trade and financial journals also offer innumer- able examples of specialized observers. Experts of a sort, undoubtedly these are, but full-rounded economists — many would doubt.
(3) A special group, perhaps belonging more in this classification than with the professional economists, is composed of the economists employed by private corporations to help represent their interests to the outside world. Some of these men are almost imposters; others are thoroughly trained men who, however, either because of the con- centration of their interests, or because they are employed to represent limited points of view, are subject to challenge as genuine disinterested economists.
As an example of the imposters, I recall one man who was a professor of engineering in a state university. Because he had a facile tongue, he was hired by a private corpora- tion as a public relations man. Suddenly, a few years ago, he metamorphosed into a consulting economist, and his articles on public economic questions were widely carried by the American press. So far as I could tell, he was entirely lacking in any of the prerequisites of a genuine economist.
Of the other group, well trained but privately hired, there are not so many. It is probably not fair to charge them with letting their employments color their points of view; but it is fair to raise a question as to their ability to retain a purely disinterested position on matters of public policy. Examples of this category might include such highly competent men as B. M. Anderson of the Chase National Bank and Colonel L. P. Ayres of the Cleveland Trust Company.
Now for the "saints" of the profession: the professorial economists and research and consulting economists of our public and governmental bodies. For the most part, these men are well-trained in historical and widespread current perspective. For the most part, also, they are supposed to be free from private pecuniary bias. They have no private masters to serve, no special interests to protect or advance.
But economists are supposed to be scientists. And scientists are supposed to yield but one body of phenomena. If these men be good men, how then can they yield such diverse interpretations and diverse proposals and variegated prophecies?
First, let me point out that economists as scientists merely observe and measure and interpret what has happened or what is happening. They are not prophetic, they are not therapeutic. However, as an observing scientist in the realms of physics or chemistry can point out anticipated results from given actions, so the good economist should be able to prophesy consequences of economic actions. Also, as the good physiologist, studying what is happening in the blood stream, may undertake to suggest remedies for conditions discovered in the hospital, so the economist might presume to prescribe for economic ills.
But in any given set of circumstances, any scientist may make erratic prophecies. He may overlook the presence of some catalytic agent previously unnoted; he may discover the presence of some element previously unmeasured; he may ignore some impurity that had not been pointed out to him. Similarly, the therapeutists overlook some unmeasured factor, or neglect some bit of knowledge previously known to others but underestimated by themselves. As these conditions may prevail among the natural scientists, so they may prevail among the "saints" of the economic profession.
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For the most part, the differences among the economists on matters of public policy today are due not to fundamental difficulties in their science, but rather to differences in their assumptions of given fact, or to differences in emphasis on economic phenomena, or to differences in conclusions as to what is most desirable for the economic organism. This is analogous to situations that may exist among physicians: there may be differences in their understanding of the history of a case, or differences in emphasis given, for example, to a sinus infection or to a heart condition, or differences in conclusions as to what would be most desirable for the patient — a chronic limp due to a foot condition, or an amputation resulting in an artificial limb.
In general, at the present time, I think, genuine economists might be, in a broad way, classified into three groups. Like all classifications, this one must not be taken too seriously, and is, of course, subject to modification.
( 1 ) There are the laissez-fairist economists, men who have accepted a tradition of the overwhelming significance of supply and demand factors in determining the trend of economic events. For the most part, they have a heavy reliance upon such assumptions as the existence of complete, omniscient, atomistic, free competition; laissez-fairism in government, the absence of social controls, the exclusive pecuniary selfishness of human nature, the inevitability and indubitable superiority (in terms of results) of the pecuniary profit motive; the going set of economic forms — of corporations, wage systems, private banks, and competitive markets; and the going set of prdperty rights. They assume a freedom of all individuals to enter into all activities, to respond to all pecuniary stimuli, in equal measure.
These men are usually referred to as orthodox economists. The experiments of the New Deal are entirely foreign to them. They cannot understand them; they can make no sense out of them. Governmental control or intervention has no place in their system. It is, therefore, idiotic; it can achieve no good; it can only upset the inevitable working of what they consider to be "natural" economic laws. In summary, the New Deal experiments can only be calamitous, can only lead to their own breakdown and to economic chaos for the country.
Governmental price and wage-fixing, among some of them even governmental regula- tion of woman and child labor or of hours of work in general, constitutes a violation of "laissez-fairism," of free competition, of the natural and normal flow of the factors of production. Limitations on output, regulatory action to affect the issuance of money and bank credit, or to affect domestic or international price levels in general, is of a similar nature. Unionism, control of industrial relations, social insurance, and relief — to the unemployed, to embarrassed home-owners, to overly indebted business concerns, is of the same character.
(2) A special category of this school of thought is composed of what are known as the monetary economists. These students have concentrated their studies on the private banking systems, gold money systems, and international exchanges, as they existed prior to 1933: credit issuance institutions based on small gold reserves, free gold exchange against money, free international flow of gold to cover international trade balances.
In general, these men hold, with their colleagues, a general distrust of domestic busi- ness regulation. They are most aroused, however, over laws changing the general nature of the money and banking systems, and they, almost literally, howl their contempt for the monetary and banking measures of the New Deal Administration. They can see no sense in any banking system not based on, and operated solely in relation to, a gold reserve. They cannot envisage a money system not based on gold. Money, they hold, can have no value, or, at any rate, no stable value, save as the bullion backing has value, and as the money is freely redeemable in bullion.
There is a "liberal" fringe among these two groups who, while holding to these ideas, in general, are willing to admit that, perhaps, all of their assumptions concerning
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the existence of free competition, omniscient, enlightened self-interest, etc., are not true — do not actually work out in practice. To the extent that this is admitted, they are willing to allow sufficient governmental intervention to effect the approximate results of such conditions if they did exist. They "might allow limited regulation of hours of work, or child and woman labor, perhaps of minimum wages, perhaps of banking prac- tices. In general, however, they view with alarm any widespread efforts at social control of the economic system or attempts to change market or banking practices or the monetary system.
How would these economists treat the depression? Most of them would just leave it alone. As the economic system is supposed to be "natural," they would leave the cure of its maladies to "nature." The government should have done nothing. The deflation of the price system should have been allowed to run its natural course. Prices should have fallen further, wages should have been cut more drastically. The weaker banks and business concerns, the overcapitalized railroads and other public utilities, the mort- gaged farmers and home-owners, should have been weeded out by the inexorable process of bankruptcy. The gold standard at 23.22 grains to the dollar should never have been tampered with. If, in the course of time, the gold drain should have depleted the treasury funds so that it could not effect redemption — that would have been prefer- able to a voluntary departure from the gold standard.
Eventually, they feel, deflation would have reached rock-bottom; prices, wages, capital values and capital charges would have fallen sufficiently low, that the processes of recovery would have developed of their own accord.
The liberals of the group would have allowed some interference, primarily for the purpose of reestablishing or preserving the forces of free competition in the markets and in the banking systems. They would have approved the securities acts, the new food and drug bill, the Wagner labor bill, the banking act, the attack on holding companies, and many "fair practices" provisions of the codes. They would have advocated reinforce- ment of the anti-trust laws, and vast extension of the power of the Federal Trade Com- mission. Most of them would have had no objection to the establishment of the TVA or CCC, and would have approved the work of the National Resources Board and the Mississippi Valley Commission. But for the AAA and the monopolistic tendencies of the NRA they would have had no use.
(3) The remaining groups of economists are generally referred to as "institution- alists." These men look around them and behold, at least to their own conviction:
That full, free competition among the economic factors really does not exist.
That such competition as does exist is not omniscient — that all of us are not intelli- gent, enlightened economic men, that most of us respond to at least some incentives other than that of private pecuniary profit.
That the value of money is due primarily to its general acceptability, rather than to its bullion exchange ratio, and is primarily a consequence of its quantity in proportion to the amount of trading in which it is to be used.
That fluctuations in the general price level, with their terribly upsetting effects on debt relationships, business activity, etc., are subject to regulation, in part, at least, through control of the quantity of money in circulation.
That bank credit is really a form of money, and that the private banks, uncon- trolled in the expansion and contraction of credit, do actually upset the economic system because of their unplanned and uncoordinated credit extending activities.
That private property rights are really merely traditional — have developed by acci- dent to their present pattern, are not natural or inalienable; are really governmental creations; have, in the past, grown, dwindled, been modified, etc. Wherefore, if public
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policy demands further modification of them, there is no fundamental reason why they should be maintained in status quo ante.
That "naturalism" is only one means of regulating the flow of the forces of produc- tion and of directing economic relationships; and that, if the people are willing to stand for it and want it, economic forces may be effectively regulated to attain greater public welfare through the processes of social control.
These are the men who have constituted the friends and directors of the New Deal. Eclectic as they are, they offer no single formula. They differ among themselves as to the most desirable ends to be sought, and as to the most efficient means of achieving them. They are alike only in their assumptions concerning the basic nature of the economic system.
Some are nationalists, some are internationalists. Some prefer advancement through improvement of the economic conditions of the poorest classes, some prefer advancement through stimulation of the rich, or of corporate organizations. Some seek recovery through price inflation, some through deliberate wage deflation. Some favor government ownership of one or several economic institutions, some want no government ownership.
Under these conditions is it any wonder that we do not understand what the Wash- ington economists are driving at? Is it any wonder that Washington doesn't know what it is driving at? Apparently Mr. Roosevelt is resorting to first one move and then another, following one line of advice and then another; but driving, at least so I hope, toward a goal of greater economic welfare for the nation, and, more particularly, for a more widespread distribution of economic well-being. All, it seems, is based upon the institutional assumption of the eclectic school of economists.
This survey of economics, I said in the beginning, was designed to eliminate con- fusion. I have outlined for you, however, so much chaos that, if you do not understand the current thinking of American economists, I do not blame you!
1920'S PHI BETA KAPPAS
The Agnes Scott Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa has named for membership the following members of the class of 1920: Alice (Cooper) Bell, Margaret (Bland) Sewell, Eliza- beth Lovett, Rosalind (Wurm) Council, Laura Stockton (Molloy) Dowling, Mary Guerrant (Burnett) Thorington.
ALUMNAE LAWYER PLACED
Patricia Collins, of the class of 1928, has been singularly honored by a recent ap- pointment to the anti-trust division of the United States Department of Justice. Patricia has established residence in the nation's capital at 1376 Harvard Street, N. W.
COUNCILLORS- AT-LARGE
The four councillors-at-large named by the Executive Board of the Alumnae Asso- ciation at its January meeting are: Sarah (Till) Davis, '22; Penelope (Brown) Barnett, '32; Charis (Hood) Barwick, '16; and Elaine Exton, ex-'31.
COMMENCEMENT
Reunion Classes this May are '26, '27, '28, '29, '07, '08, '09, '10, '34. The usual barrage of correspondence, giving the details of the Commencement program, will be sent out shortly. Meanwhile, if you are of this number, begin making plans to be at Decatur for May 24 to May 28 NOW!
FOUNDER'S DAY GREETING TO THE ALUMNAE
Nannette Hopkins Dean of Agnes Scott College
It is my privilege and pleasure to bring you again greetings from your Alma Mater. To each one of you I wish to give also a personal greeting. I think of you with pride mingled with many happy memories.
I hope many of you will find this week a convenient time for your home-coming. An interesting and helpful program has been arranged and a most cordial welcome awaits you at your second home. We are pleased and encouraged by the good news that continually comes to us of your work in the home, the church, the schools, in social service, in artistic and professional fields. Daughters of Agnes Scott, may you be an ever-increasing inspiration and source of strength to those whose lives you touch. In you we see the fulfillment of the purpose of our founders.
Let us remember this afternoon that one who has been called the first Agnes Scott girl — Mrs. Agnes Irvine Scott. In 1816, then seventeen years old, she left Ireland on a sailing vessel and after a voyage of thirty-six days landed in this country. The primitive mode of living in this new country contrasted strongly with the comforts and oppor- tunities she had left behind, and she shed many bitter tears in this strange land. With courage and determination this homesick girl overcame the handicaps of her new sur- roundings and years later, as an intelligent, Christian mother, she so impressed her son that he honored her memory by endowing our College as a memorial to her. Many thousand girls honor her name and bear the impress of her character. Today we celebrate the birthday of that son, Colonel George Washington Scott, whose generosity made our College possible.
With gratitude we remember our great leaders — Dr. F. H. Gaines, Mr. Samuel M. Inman, Mr. J. K. Orr and all who have had a part in bringing your Alma Mater to its present position of prestige and influence.
In the early days of its history when most in need of friends this institution found one in Mr. Charles Murphey Candler, Sr., the only members of the original Board of Trustees who is still connected with the College. Mr. Candler was never too busy to give generously of his valuable time to the young institution. No work for it was ever too difficult or too humble to claim his attention.
President McCain has great plans for the further development of the College. One plan has been made in which he has had no part whatsoever — the one concerning his portrait. Such a portrait has long been desired. The Class of 193 3 took the first definite step toward realizing this desire by devising a clever way to obtain funds for the purpose. This session the president of Student Government, Miss Alberta Palmour, initiated a plan by which faculty, officers, alumnae, and the student body made it possible to have the portrait this year. Mr. Sidney Dickinson, a nationally famed artist, has accepted the commission for the portrait which will be finished by the third week of March. Come to Commencement and see it unveiled.
To relatives, to friends, to all who are listening in this afternoon a very cordial greeting!
A MESSAGE FROM THE TRUSTEES
George Winship Member of the Board of Trustees of Agnes Scott College
It is a pleasure to have a part in this program and to extend greetings from the Trustees to the Alumnae of the College and to any friends who may be listening.
When we see institutions or organizations at their present stages of development we are sometimes prone to forget what they were in their early days, and the struggles they had at that time. It is also well to remind ourselves regarding the ideals and objec- tives of the founders.
This especially is true of Agnes Scott. It was born in the hearts and minds of Dr. F. H. Gaines, who was then pastor of the Decatur Presbyterian Church, and Colonel George W. Scott of Decatur.
Colonel Scott gave the original grounds and the main building now known as Agnes Scott Hall which was the only building on the campus for a number of years. It was named in honor and memory of his mother, Agnes Scott.
During the more than forty years of its life the college has had only two presidents, Dr. Gaines who died in 1922, and Dr. J. R. McCain, the present executive head, who succeeded him.
The Trustees have had only four chairmen and what towers of strength these men have been — Dr. Gaines, Colonel Scott, Mr. Samuel M. Inman of Atlanta and for the past twenty years, the present chairman, Mr. J. K. Orr! Georgia has had few citizens of the caliber of these men, and how much they have meant to the College! The first teacher, Miss Nannette Hopkins, is still with the college as Dean. She has been known and loved by every girl who has attended Agnes Scott. It is a real privilege for you to hear her voice on this program.
For its students the College has four simple objectives. The first is very high in- tellectual attainment. The second emphasis is simple religious faith. The third is physical well being. The fourth purpose is the development of charming personalities.
Time does not permit me to enlarge on or make further explanation regarding these objectives; they were the ideals of the founders and they have been kept constantly before the faculty and students of the College throughout the years; it is fitting that we remember them on a Founder's Day Program.
How successful has the College been in reaching these ideas? The answer is in the lives and accomplishments of the more than six thousand women who have graduated from or attended Agnes Scott. In 1934 there were students from twenty-seven states and four foreign countries so that it may be truly said that the influence of Agnes Scott is being felt throughout the United States and elsewhere. A large percentage of these students was from Georgia which means that the citizenship of this state has received a large benefit from the work of this institution.
During the past two decades, under the leadership of Dr. McCain and Mr. Orr, progress has been more rapid than ever before and the future looks very bright. But, we should not forget the foundation they had to build upon and our indebtedness to the founders of the school.
THE BUILDING PROGRAM OF AGNES SCOTT
Dr. J. R. McCain
President of Agnes Scott College
It is my very pleasant duty to talk about the building plans of Agnes Scott for the next year. I wonder whether any of our alumnae have ever built air castles? If so, you know in a measure just how we feel about our plans. It is delightful to think of what may be and to outline this building or that, but we know in our hearts that nothing will come to pass unless we are able to lay a solid foundation of cash collected between now and July 1st. With this warning as to the conditions that must be attached, I am glad to explain something of what we hope may come to pass.
The Carnegie Corporation recently gave us $15,000 for books, and our purchases with college money have also been steadily continued, so that we have gotten to a place where we have more books than we can properly house in our present building. It is not fire-proof and it is dangerous to have such a valuable collection in a place that does not have modern protection. In addition, all the newer methods of teaching in college emphasize library use as very essential; and the demand for reading space has increased even faster than our student body. At busy times, you may find girls sitting on stairways or even on the floor, trying to get their needed materials.
For these and other reasons, our educational advisers and our own staff feel that the greatest single need just now is a new library building; and so we are planning for it. We wish one that is three times the size of our present building and that may eventually be enlarged without architectural trouble to six times our present capacity — not that we want our student body to grow in that ratio, but we want the library, which is the heart of a modern college, to reflect the developing spirit of Agnes Scott.
The location for the library building has not been definitely settled nor have the details of its space and equipment; but it will be a beautiful structure and will awaken a sense of pride in every Agnes Scotter. For so many years we have had to consider only utility in our building that I am anxious that we put beauty alongside of usefulness in what we do just now. I am afraid that the building will cost $200,000 to get what we want.
A second building which we hope to erect is one which will provide additional quarters for our Science Departments. When our present Science Building was erected we had only three science teachers. Now we have ten teachers and twice as many students as formerly. It makes a real problem for us to find room for class work as well as for laboratory experiments. The General Education Board officials who visited our campus were thoroughly "sold" on our opportunities and our needs in this field; and it was for this improvement that they were willing to put up an extra $100,000 if we can handle the remainder of our job.
We are not sure where this building will be erected either, but it will be relatively close to our present Science Hall. Eventually we will hope to bring all the sciences together again, and also the proposed Department of the Home, in one building; but we will not have money enough for it now, and hence the new building will be designed so as to be expanded to twice its size without architectural change.
A third building development in which we are keenly interested is the transforming of our present library structure into a Students' Activities Building. It will be admir- able for this purpose. The large reading room will be ideal for receptions and general relaxation; and the smaller rooms will provide adequate and attractive quarters for all the clubs and organizations on the campus. The day students particularly will find it a delightful place in which to feel at home.
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A fourth development that is not exactly a building project is nevertheless important. We wish to extend the paved drive in front of Buttrick Hall so that it will go directly to Candler Street, and then to make a connection also with the front drive so that sight- seers may really drive through the campus and find out what a fine place we have. It will necessitate our moving the Infirmary another time, but it is accustomed to being shifted about, and it may require Dr. Sweet to give up her garden; but it will add im- mensely to the looks and to the comfort of our Agnes Scott campus.
We invite you now to lay your plans so as to be with us for the opening of college in 1936 and to see as completed realities these things of which we now dream; for we do believe with all our hearts that the way will open up, through the efforts of us all, for the splendid opportunities to be realized.
WITH OUR CLUBS
The Atlanta Club has made it possible for the top to be placed on the Alumnae Garden pergola, through a generous gift from the club treasury and through the pledged support of the groups under Mary (Warren) Read, '29; Louise (Brown) Hastings, '23; and Sara (Berry) West, '32. The group under Mary (Crenshaw) McCullough, '28, has redecorated the College Guest Room in the Alumnae House. At a table setting contest conducted at Davison-Paxon's the club won first honorable mention.
Two new clubs are the Chattanooga and Chicago groups. The former will be in- strumental in bringing prospective students to the campus for May Day.
The Business Girls' Group of the Atlanta Club has donated linens to the rooms main- tained for the convenience of Day Students in Inman Hall.
The Decatur Club is making plans for the annual children's party at Commencement. Thanks to the generosity of this group, the furniture in two Alumnae House guest rooms has been painted recently.
The Washington Club met in April, when Elinor Hamilton, '34, Field Alumnae Secretary, visited the capitol for the National Conference of Alumni Secretaries.
POETESS VISITS CAMPUS
A recent visitor on the campus, whose appearance excited much favorable comment, was Leonora (Owsley) Herman of the Institute. Reading in Chapel on the morning of March 20th, she gave a fine selection of poems from her recently published volume, Rather Personal.
A write-up of the Marietta, Georgia, alumnae meeting on February 22 reached the office too late to be included in Sara Cook's article. The Offiice extends thanks to Hazel (Murphy) Elder, ex-'12, for her cooperation and hospitality at this time.
So well pleased have the College authorities been with the splendid work of Mr. Sidney Dickinson in painting Dr. McCain's portrait, that he has been given the commission for the portrait of Mr. J. K. Orr, Sr., Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and of the late Mr. Samuel M. Inman, former Chairman of the Board.
April 9th has been set aside for a campus campaign. The pledges of students and faculty are expected to help us reach our goal set for July 1st.
A WORD ABOUT THE ALUMNAE WEEK-END
Lucile Alexander, '11 Professor of Romance Languages at Agnes Scott College
In the early 1920's, when interest in adult education was very definitely crystalizing and alumni secretaries were falling in line with "College after College courses," the alum- na (and alumnus) of — say, ten years' standing — was fired with the ambition not to fall under the current (and rather waggish) definition of an adult — "someone who has stopped growing at the two ends to grow in the middle." Under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation, conferences of college presidents and alumni officers were called to consider alumni education.
At Agnes Scott a small beginning was made in 1925-1926. Directed reading courses were undertaken. With the aid of members of the Agnes Scott faculty, reading lists were prepared and mailed to interested alumnae. The response was gratifying, and this small beginning was put in the hands of the Curriculum Com- mittee of the Alumnae Association for development. Members of our faculty furnished well-considered outlines to guide the reader. Our most interested readers were the small town teachers. They had no library facilities; it was impossible for any one of them to buy, from the small salary check, the twelve or fourteen books needed in each course. In this moment of crisis the day was saved by the generous example of Miss Jean Davis, our then Professor of Sociology and Economics, who made a per- sonal contribution of the volumes needed for the course in Sociology — a gift which started, in a small way, a circulating library.
Interest grew. Our Alumnae Quarterly began to carry lists of summer reading, of reading on topics of current interest. In 1930, the Curriculum Committee, under the chairmanship of Adelaide Cunningham, '11, made plans to bring the alumnae back to the campus for two days of lectures on vital subjects. Thus it was that the First Alumnae Week-End happened. The time chosen was Thanksgiving, to coincide with the Home-Coming Tea at the Anna Young Alumnae House. Six lectures were arranged for the two days on Child Psychology, Social Case Work, Current History and Literature. The hundred alumnae present enjoyed seeing the College in action: the art exhibit, the book exhibit, the horse show; but most of all they enjoyed the sensation of being once more in the class room in the attitude of learner. They found satisfac- tion in the sense of stimulation to present-day lines of thought. Their suggestions for future programs included a request for more Agnes Scott professors as lecturers. Accordingly, the programs for the second and third Alumnae Week-Ends, arranged under the leadership of Mary Ben (Wright) Erwin, '2 5, were largely given by members of the Agnes Scott faculty.
The present Curriculum Committee, with Clara (Whips) Dunn, '16, as chairman, has made several innovations in the program of this our Fourth Alumnae Week-End. The time has been changed to February 22 and 23, to coincide with Founder's Day. To give unity to the lectures, two central themes have been chosen: Our Changing Standards, and Motherhood a Profession for the College Woman. This morning in But- trick Hall Dr. Emma May Laney of Agnes Scott told us what is expected of the present- day college woman; Dr. Philip Davidson, also of the Agnes Scott faculty, and Dr. Mercer Evans of Emory University clarified our confused ideas of present-day govern- ments and economics. Tomorrow, between ten and twelve, this theme of changing standards will be rounded out by lectures in the fields of Philosophy, Medicine and Literature by Drs. Loemker and Kracke of Emory and Dr. Hayes of Agnes Scott. The lectures arranged primarily to interest mothers will run concurrently, and to make it possible for many mothers to attend, Llewellyn Wilburn, '19, Agnes Scott Professor of Physical Education, has undertaken to provide for alumnae children between the ages of four and twelve a morning of games, story-telling, swimming, folk dancing.
CHANGING EMPHASES IN PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Leroy Loemker Associate Professor of Philosophy at Emory University
"At last," said one of America's foremost thinkers after a student had ventured to attack his pet theory of the ideality of time, "the biblical miracle has been repeated. Balaam's ass has spoken." An attempt to discuss contemporary movements in philosophy at all adequately would once more repeat the miracle. I shall choose rather to discuss the philosophic attitude in modern life and the contributions it is beginning to make toward a clearer understanding of twentieth century issues, illustrating with five or six intellectual problems which seem to me of great practical import.
1. We are definitely having a philosophical Renaissance today. In the face of that truth, it is important that we remember what it is that philosophy tries to do. The word itself is as common on people's tongues today as was the word psychology a decade ago, and with probably even less meaning. Two of the most common misconceptions of the philosophic task I should like at once to dispel.
Philosophy is not the vain pursuit of a type of truth that is ephemeral, timeless, and therefore meaningless so far as the everyday problems of life are concerned. It is common for the vast numbers of people who find abstract thinking difficult to brush it aside by saying, "That's too philosophical for me." It is true that philosophy is both speculative and difficult, but it is still of great practical importance. Plato himself aided the false impression when, in a world renouncing mood, he pictured Thales, the philos- opher, falling into a well because he had his eyes fixed on the stars, only to be rescued by his Thracian handmaiden, Common Sense. Our own age, with its vision narrowed to material interests, rejects philosophy because, as Novalis said, it bakes no bread. We are moved in these days of movies, radios and other forms of propagandistic emotionalism to cry as did Romeo:
"Hang up philosophy. Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom, It helps not, it avails not; talk no more." But princes have been doomed, towns and nations displanted, and even Juliets destroyed for lack of philosophy. Philosophy is not life, but it seeks the guidance of life through a system of logically related beliefs.
The other misconception, even more apparent, is that any series of convictions for which one has reasons at hand constitute a philosophy. The Germans have never been able to engage in any new action, not even a Sunday walk, without being backed by a whole Weltanschauung; now we too are forming the habit of seeking "philosophic" justification for everything. Recently I saw a manual of physical exercise whose first chapter was entitled "Philosophy." If contemporary fashions continue, we shall soon have a philosophy for every political party, every religious denomination, every com- bination of governmental letters, every emotion of hope or despair. But philosophy is much harder than merely giving bad reasons for what you believe by instinct. To be philosophical, man has really to think. His thinking must be on a scale as inclusive as possible. He must think about his convictions and the motives of his conduct, and his thinking has to be free from contradictions, consistent, and comprehensive. He has to think in terms of principles general enough and universal enough to cast light on the whole of experience. A person — or a nation or age — is not philosophical until it is trying to understand the beliefs implicit in its actions, analyzing them to remove the contra- dictions it discovers in them, and relating them by means of magnificent guesses about the universe and man's place in it. Intelligence introducing order and consistency into our vision, and thereby into our actions — that is what philosophy must always be, de- structive of sham and carelessness, creative of new possibilities.
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So though fashions change in philosophy as elsewhere, there can be no talk of chang- ing standards; whatever may be happening in other circles, philosophers are still on the gold standard of objective critical thinking. But the emphases change as the human be- liefs which constitute its data change, and since no human interest has contributed more to such changes than has science, we may well examine the effects recent scientific changes have had on philosophy.
2. What emphases in philosophy have resulted from the deep and revolutionary changes in our scientific beliefs? For one thing, traditional lines and distinctions between the several sciences, and between science and philosophy, are breaking down. It is no longer easy to tell who is a philosopher and who is not, since the sciences themselves are becoming philosophical. There is poetic justice in this, for the disdain shown by scientists for philosophy in the years between Darwin and the World War was colossal. Their sense of a superior method and the tangible and truly remarkable achievements to the credit of that method drove many thinkers to repudiate the bolder speculative ventures of philosophy and to renounce any hope of truth beyond the scientific. That was the period of positivism and naturalism, when the belief grew that the world as a whole, at least so far as we may know it, must be exactly like what the scientist has found iso- lated and selected parts of it to be. Even today some of our most significant thinkers, like Santayana and Dewey, tend to limit truth to the restricted field of science and to relegate religion, philosophy, and judgments of beauty to the realm of the imaginative and fictitious.
But in their rapid development the sciences have now reached a point where their very specialization has broken down the barriers between them and cast doubt upon their most general assumptions, such as that of mechanical determinism itself. In this sit- uation their lack of philosophic training has exposed the scientists themselves to con- fusion. Thus extreme behaviorism in psychology appeals uncritically to a type of nat- uralism that is hardly any longer respectable in the light of the great revolution in physics. Physics has had to abandon old assumptions such as continuity, matter, mechan- ism. So has biology. Both are involved in circularities and riddles that challenge the bolder speculations of philosophy. In criticizing their own abstractions economics and law have uncovered their roots in ethics. The result is that philosophy has once more become not merely respectable, but indispensable in its function of pointing out the possibilities and objectives for the sciences.
3. Conversely, these shifts and enlargements of the field of science have had an important effect in helping to overthrow a theory of the universe which seemed to many inevitable fifty years ago, and which threatened constructive thinking on morals, art, and religion. That theory was naturalism, the view that mechanical process, indifferent to human wishes and needs, exhausts reality and completely explains man himself. It is now apparently declining. First the matter of the physicists disintegrated, then the at- tempts to explain evolution mechanically were seen to be inadequate, and so evidence ac- cumulated until, as Chesterton once put it, the stale and stuffy philosophy was aban- doned by men of science merely because it was stale and stuffy. As opposed to it, old philosophical enemies are agreed and realists and idealists alike seem to be converging on a world view that is purposive, creative, and optimistic. So Professor A. N. Whitehead, astute mathematician whom no less an authority than Gertrude Stein has hailed as one of the greatest thinkers, has developed a system based on the sciences and a profound insight into human history which is realistic but asserts an organic, purposive, more than mechanical universe in which human goals and dreams are important. So though phi- losophical standards do not change, we seem now to be at the end of old distinctions and schools, and to be preparing for new alignments and classifications about issues more di- rectly related to human hopes and experiences.
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So much for theoretical problems. Perhaps you will agree that we had better move to the consideration of issues more immediately practical. Of such problems I have selected three which seem to me to be crucial in the confused intellectual currents of our post-war world — the problems of the meaning of history, the significance of human values, and the objective reality of the objects of religion.
4. Historians gather the facts and write history; philosophy has in the last two hun- dred years sought to find meaning in history. Perhaps it is a mistake to do so; certainly as Spengler has pointed out, the most creative periods of human history seem to have disregarded the past or rejected its lessons, as the Athenians after Marathon broke the ancient marbles which graced the Acropolis and hurled them into the foundation of the Parthenon that, freed of the past, they might create a more beautiful future. But whether right or wrong, we have become increasingly subjective, and since the eighteenth cen- tury our subjectivism has taken the form of an interest in the past. The nineteenth century had its answers to the meaning of history; it knew both what made history and where it was going. About its goal it was, for a scientific century, surprisingly opti- mistic. After the dreams of Rousseau and the other encyclopaedists, the logical deduc- tions of Hegel and Comte, and the evolutionary evidence of Darwin, progress was an inevitable assumption. The nineteenth century also knew all the answers as to why history moved forward. Hegel, seeing Napoleon reviewing his troops at the gates of Jena, goes home to write in his journal, "This day I saw the World Spirit on horse back," and so convinced was he that whatever is is the reasonable expression of a perfectly ordered Absolute Reason that he regarded such contrasting events as the French Revolution and the Holy Alliance as equally necessary steps in a perfect process toward a perfect goal. Tolstoy, and Ruskin and Wagner all regarded progress as inevitable and dreamed of an art that would further that progress. Carlyle's thesis that it is great men who make history was carried to its extreme by Nietzsche, who added that if a man is great enough he will make history serve his own ends, and rejected by Schopenhauer, who though he found history to be the expression of a restless and evil will, yet regarded its ends as good, and by Marx, in whose thought the one adequate motive to progress is economic. But no one questioned progress itself.
Since the war we are not so sure and the philosophy of history is being rethought in terms of some deep and disturbing experiences. Many thinkers have turned to Marx's conception without following his economic theories in detail. Spengler, by contrast, found even before the war and brilliantly expounded evidence for the work of an ir- resistible fate driving history in cycles, and for our own time only inevitable decline. But most thinkers today, as at most times, find in history neither inevitable progress nor inevitable decay, but the possibility of advance contingent upon human effort in creat- ing it. This view of history as finding its meaning and its motive force in personalities, and capable of progress only if they achieve it — what James called meliorism — is still the philosophy of liberalism. Many enlightened thinkers find world forces, super- personal or at least transpersonal, working in support of man in his enterprise. I may mention here the significant conception of history contained in Whitehead's Adventures of Ideas, and in second place Delisle Burn's The Horizons of Experience.
5. Another, more basic problem is that of values. The question of the significance and nature of human interests, especially the Platonic triad of goodness, beauty, and truth, has always constituted one of the two great foci of philosophic endeavor. But here too our present problems are a heritage of the nineteenth century. To enter into the field of modern value theory is to enter a veritable maze of issues and viewpoints. Few thinkers are agreed on what values are, to say nothing of agreeing on their classi- fication and significance in reality. I can merely comment briefly on two general changes in our thinking about values — on the question of their reality, and the question of standards in judging them.
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterl y 21
The naturalism of the nineteenth century, with its psychological and historical in- terests, tended to two views about values: first, that they were so obviously dependent on changing human wishes that they were not real; and second, that since they depend on human wishes there can be no objective principle by which to tell what is really val- uable and what is not. Darwin himself voiced this opinion in pointing out that beauty is only an emotion, without a basis in reality. Of course science cannot study the sunset as beautiful but only as dust diffracting light, and so the nineteenth century held beauty to be unreal. Similarly Feuerbach and others denied the validity of the objects of religion, finding the secret of theology to be "not the truth that God created man in his own image, but that man created God in his own image," an approach which the new sciences of anthropology and psychology strengthened. (A peculiar error to which students, still breathing the scientific air of the last century, are prone is to assume that when we know the origin of any human interest we have explained it away.) Similarly followers of Darwin explained morality as a product of and a process in the adaptation of the individual (if you follow Nietzsche) or of the social group (if you follow Spencer, Kropotkin, or Dewey) to its environment and therefore as a purely relative and chang- ing matter. It was unfortunate that philosophers turned to the critical investigation of human values at just this time of scientific self-confidence, when it was felt that we were about to have revealed a world so mechanically correct as to be a paradise of in- telligibility— if only we could keep human desires and efforts out of it. The natural re- sult was to hold only that aspect of the world to be real which science says is real, and to relegate the great eternal goods of Plato into the limbo of poetry, dreams, and fiction.
Fortunately that is changing. An evidence of the change is the renewed interest shown in the last ten years in Plato, to whom we owe the emphasis on the reality of the spirit. We are still finding new and timely meanings in the dialogues of the son of Apollo, to which, as Whitehead said recently, all the rest of the history of philosophy is but a commentary. The psychological fallacy has been refuted over and over, and the new emphasis on the logical structure of values as well as of science has driven many thinkers of all schools to try to recapture a view of the universe in which values are as significant as facts — in which the world, as Lotze once put it, not only is a fact but has a meaning.
That cannot be accomplished, however, until the practical problem of standards has been solved. Horace's de gustibtis non est disputandum has been extended in these post- war years to every field, with the result that unintelligence and propaganda are effective as never before. Certainly the orgy of schools in the arts reveals either a blind search for new standards, or possibly a feeling of disgust at any. The collapse of morals was a byword a few years ago. New religious cults, each claiming exclusive truth, have flourished. Our bearings are lost, and old irreconcilables — beauty and ugliness, good and bad, even true and false — are most confusingly blurred. What else could happen in a world plunged suddenly from peace to war morality, from agricultural to industrial eco- nomics, a world grown subjective whose rule was experimentalism. But from this con- fusion has resulted either a great Weltschmerz, an exhaustion of defeat, or a longing for some certainties. Many have sought refuge in the authorities of the past or the present, some in a confusing intuitionalism or mysticism, some in a comforting other-worldliness. But the most hopeful way out is offered, I believe, by those philosophers who have the patience to engage in careful analysis of the human experiences of beauty, and character, and truth, to find in their logical structures a principle for making anew the age old and greatly needed distinctions. We cannot return to the old, whether in art or morals or statesmanship or religion, and it is of tremendous importance what is the new which we shall adopt.
In short, the philosophers are beginning again to recognize the responsibility which thinking must carry in the planning of life. A mood of seriousness has overcome them;
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they are not so much trying to abandon their syllogism-grinding as to apply it, in sup- plementing science, which always deals with the means, never with the ends of humanity, by envisioning the world of what-ought-to-be.
6. One further change should be noted. Philosophers today are concerned, as they were not in the nineteenth century, with the Eternal. Even fifteen years ago God was not a philosophical term, though of course there were substitutes. Today one of the real problems of thought is the old search of Job. And again the most diverse philos- ophies are converging on a conception of God, purposive, immanent in a developing world, wanting supreme values, and to whose nature man and his creative enterprises are important. Some hesitate to call God personal, fearing the oversimplifications that term implies; others find in that concept the key to understanding this benevolent, creative spiritual process. We are in for a revival of metaphysics, and in general a useful meta- physics, a metaphysics that will influence literature, art, and preaching, and even, we hope, government and economic relations.
Meanwhile what is most important is that we all should catch the philosophic vision — to see life steadily and see it whole, that we may turn incompleteness into perfection. The world is not, perhaps fortunately, a philosopher's world. But it can lose nothing by taking on more of the aura of reason. Diderot once said, "It would be necessary to turn the world upside down to place it under the dominion of philosophy." Philosophy and religion seem at least to be interested in the same task, for I recall that at Thessalonica the early Christians were known as "those who have turned the world upside down."
AGNES SCOTT ANNOUNCER PLACED
Polly Vaughan, '34, who has announced the weekly Agnes Scott radio programs this semester, has had the good fortune to win an eight weeks' commercial contract over WSB.
MISS McKINNEY
Miss McKinney's many alumnae friends will regret to learn of a painful fall in March, when she broke both of her wrists. She has resumed her work.
ALUMNAE AUTHOR
Rose B. Knox, Institute, has been singularly honored by The Wilson Bulletin (Jan- uary, 193 5 issue), which carried a lovely cut of the author and a personal interview. The same issue has an annotated bibliography, The South in Books for Children, A Sur- vey: 1852-1933, compiled by this one of our alumnae. We extend congratulations to her in her continued success as an author of children's stories of the Old South.
PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN THE FUTURE
Dr. Roy R. Kracke Professor of Medicine at Emory University
A study of this question necessarily should include an analysis of the methods of medical practice of today. Since, of course, the future of medicine is only speculative it is well to study this problem from a standpoint of data collected dealing with present day practice. To discuss adequately plans that are now contemplated by the State and Federal Governments for changing methods of medical practice, no data is so informative as that which was accumulated by President Hoover's Committee on the Cost of Medical Care, which report was released in November, 1932. This will be discussed in detail since it presents in a concise and authoritative fashion the shortcomings of medicine and medical care as they now exist, and, furthermore, since the information was gathered at a cost of nearly a million dollars, it is well to consider in detail many important facts that are brought out in it.
It is probable that since the report on conditions in the medical schools, published in 1909 by the Carnegie Foundation, no document of more importance in the care of the sick has appeared, than the final report of the Committee on the Cost of Medical Care. This occurred at a time when America was in the third year of the Depression, which undoubtedly colored somewhat the reception accorded the report.
On April 1, 1926, some 15 leaders in medically related fields came together in Wash- ington for a conference. The cost of medical care had been the subject of much com- plaint. Furthermore, many practitioners of medicine had been placed in a difficult posi- tion with respect to income and facilities with which to work, resulting in a marked failure to utilize fully the result of scientific research in medical practice or to give the people the service they needed.
At a second conference in Washington (May 17, 1927) the nucleus of the Hoover Committee was created and after considerable study a five year program of research was adopted. For most of the five year period this unofficial group was composed of 48 mem- bers, representing the fields of private practice, public health, medical institutions, the social sciences, special interests and the general public. The Committee served under the chairmanship of Secretary Ray Lyman Wilbur, who, being a physician, was well fitted for the task. They expended a little less than a million dollars, and had an immense amount of data and labor donated by interested agencies and individuals.
The Committee completed its studies and published its final report in 1932, which for the purposes of this paper can best be treated under two heads: (1) The present status of medical service, and (2) Recommendations as to how a satisfactory medical program can be accomplished.
At the present time, many persons do not receive medical service which is adequate either in quantity or quality, and the costs are unequally distributed. The result is a tremendous amount of preventable physical pain and mental anguish, needless deaths, economic inefficiency, and social waste. Furthermore, these conditions are largely un- necessary. The tremendous advances of medicine, as a profession, during the last 25 years are generally well known, but as an economic activity it has made very little progress. A barrier, in large part economic, stands between practitioners, able and eager to serve, and patients who need the service, but are either unwilling or unable to pay for it. This barrier seems rooted in the age old institution of private individual practice, which has broken down under the requirements and complexities of modern life.
Nearly 1,100,000 persons in the United States devote all or a part of their time to providing medical service. About one-half of these are practitioners. There were in 1930 nearly seven thousand hospitals of 1,000,000 beds, 8,000 clinics, about 60,000 drug stores and a few private laboratories. Most cities and a few rural areas had health de-
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partments. These are the facilities on which the American people rely for the prevention and cure of disease.
These facilities, however, are not distributed primarily according to needs, but rather according to real or supposed ability of patients to pay. As a result, many communities are undersupplied, while others have a surplus. For example, in 1929 there was one physician to every 1,431 persons in South Carolina, as contrasted with one to every 571 in California and one to every 621 in New York state. Of the 3,072 counties in the United States, only 1,765 in 1928 had hospitals for general community use. Wisconsin had one bed for community use to every 154 persons, while South Carolina had one bed to each 740 persons. Similar conclusions are reached from data on other states. There is also a maldistribution by type. For example, approximately 45 per cent of the physicians of the country have completely or partially limited their practice to a specialty, although apparently the needs of the people could be met adequately if not more than 1 8 per cent of physicians were specialists.
In a nationwide survey of illnesses and costs of medical service among 8,000 white families, the committee found that there was substantially the same incidence of illness per family in the various broad income groups. Families with incomes under $2,000, however, receive far less medical service than those with incomes of $5,000 or of $10,000 and over. It is evident that the two or three lowest income groups receive far less of nearly every service, than the groups with highest incomes. Only one-fifth as many persons in the lowest income group receive any dental attention. The families with in- comes of $1,200 to $2,000 receive even less hospitalization than do the families with in- comes under $1,200.
The most reliable criteria of the adequacy of services are the number of home, office and clinic calls by physicians and the per capita number of days of hospitalization. Of these two items the well-to-do patients received 87 per cent of the standard amount, while the groups with smaller incomes obtain far less service. In spite of the large volume of free work done by hospitals, health departments, and practitioners, and in spite of the sliding scale of charges, it appears that each year nearly one-half of the individuals in the lowest income group receive no professional, medical or dental attention of any kind, curative or preventive.
Turning now to dental care, the Committee found that the annual expenditure was extremely low among the 90 per cent of families with incomes under $5,000. Thus, among families with incomes of $1,200 to $2,000 the average annual expenditure for dental care is $9.01. Families with these incomes or less constitute one-half the total population. Families with incomes of $2,000 to $3,000 spend an average of $16.39 or nearly twice as much.
Probably over 60 per cent of the one-half billion dollars expended annually for dental service comes from 2 5 per cent of the population with incomes of $3,000 or more. Though there are other explanations, undoubtedly the economic deterrent is the chief factor in this condition.
The report shows equal or even worse conditions in matters of mental hygiene, health service for negroes as a group, the use of preventive medical services, public health activ- ities, and, in fact every phase of adequate medical care.
Very pertinent to the general problem is a comparison of the cost of medical care to the national income. Medical service has always been essentially a personal service. Con- trary to the trend in other activity, increased specialization and a larger capital invest- ment have tended to increase rather than decrease cost to the consumer. The people of the United States in 1929 spent $3,656,000,000 for all forms of medical service, includ- ing that purchased indirectly through taxes. This is about $30.00 per capita per annum and constituted 4 per cent of the money income of the country. This expenditure is
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 25
not excessive for the population as a wtwle in view of a national expenditure of a near equal amount for each of the following: tobacco, toilet articles, and recreation, or of twice the sum for automobiles. As the burden becomes more distributed during the next few decades, undoubtedly a far larger sum will be expended without hardship. Some of the present expenditure, however, could be checked or redirected. For example, of the three and one-half billions spent for medical service, 12 5 millions go to osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, faith healers and allied groups, and three hundred sixty mil- lions for patent medicines. Of course, much of this is wasted, but regardless of waste and inferior service, however, the Committee feels that the annual expenditure for med- ical service is reasonable.
The primary reason why the costs of medical care cause complaint is that the costs are uneven and unpredictable. The costs of medical care in any one year now fall very un- evenly upon different families in the same income and population groups. The heart of the problem, therefore, is the equalization of the financial impact of sickness. The in- dividual family derives no comfort from the knowledge that the average cost of medical care is not excessive with the average income. If a family lays aside for medical costs 4 per cent of its annual income (say $110) it may spend only $10 or it may spend $1,000. Installment paying of predictable expenditures has encouraged budgeting, but the fact that illness cannot be predicted makes budgeting for medical care practically impossible. On the present fee-for-service basis, it is impossible for 99 per cent of families to set aside any sum with the positive assurance that it will purchase all needed medical care.
Medical costs which are too high for many families do not necessarily mean high incomes for physicians, although the average net income of private practitioners in 1929 was $5,300 a year, one-third had incomes of less than $2,5 00. Forty-seven thousand doctors earn no more than $50 a week. In 1929 18 per cent of American physicians en- joyed an income of $1,5 00 a year. Under the depression this percentage has undoubtedly increased. The total income of the 70,000 practitioners was less than that received by the 30,000 specialists. Forty per cent of the incomes go into overhead, which adds to the patient's cost without financial return to the doctor. Many doctors have no well-to- do patients, in which case the cost of free care is an unjustifiable burden on the doctor.
Voluntary hospitals are suffering similarly from inadequate income. They are ex- pected to be self-supporting, yet are required to keep modernized without raising charges, which are already as high or higher than the people can pay. The demand for free work increases, as income from philanthropy and community funds becomes more and more ex- duced. Hospitals, even more than doctors, find it impossible to pass on to wealthy patients the cost of the free work done. Expenses cannot be reduced appreciably with- out impairment of service.
It has been found that through efficient and economical organization, all needed med- ical care of the kind purchased individually could be provided at costs of $20 to $40 per capita per annum. This includes physicians, dentists, and other personnel, and the provision of hospitalization, laboratory service, x-ray, drugs, eye glasses, appliances, and other items. Low income families, however, cannot pay even $20 to $40 per capita. A family of five with an income of $1,500 would have to spend $150 of that for such service. The fact remains, however, that $30 is well within the collective resources of the country. The problem, then, is to find some method of drawing on the combined resources of the population.
The foregoing findings are enough to suggest that present conditions are by no means ideal, and that sweeping changes are imperative. The Committee, of course, realized that a satisfactory medical service for all the people must come by a process of evolution. To this end, five recommendations were offered in their report.
26 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
First, "the Committee recommends that medical service, both preventive and thera- peutic, should be furnished largely by organized groups of physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and other associated personnel. Such groups should be organized, preferably around a hospital, for rendering complete office, home, and hospital care. The form of organization should encourage the maintenance of high standards and the development or preservation of a personal relation between patient and physician."
The keynote of this first recommendation is organization, which is believed to be the means of overcoming the chief difficulties in medical practice, namely, the lack of co- ordination between practitioners and specialist, the isolation of some practitioners from ,helpful contact, the lack of supervision and control over the quality of work, the en- forced idleness of doctors without patients, the difficulty patients have in choosing quali- fied physicians and the duplication of overhead cost in private practice. In such an or- ganized group, it would be understood that each professional person would be responsible to the group for the quality of his work, rather, than as now, solely to himself.
In this first and largest recommendation the Committee sees as an ultimate objective a far-reaching health service of which existing hospitals become home bases, or community medical centers. The center would provide a general hospital, an out-patient depart- ment, a pharmacy, offices for doctors, dentist, technicians, and subsidiary personnel and headquarters for nurses. All diagnostic and therapeutic equipment would be available. Physicians would see patients in their homes, in the offices at the center and in the hos- pital. Home nursing would be available on visit, part time or full time basis. Even a housekeeping service would be available. Convalescents from the center would be farmed out, if desirable, to rural sub-centers. All appliances, dressings and ambulance service would be a part of the group.
Such an organization might work under various kinds of administrative control. A general board, representative of the community, would direct general policies and assume financial responsibility, but professional aspects would be under the professional personnel of the center. Remuneration would be on a salary basis, or by a division of receipts. Specialists might serve several centers on monthly retainer fees, but whatever the method, compensation should take account of one's competence and responsibilities.
The service would extend from the one or more urban centers to sub-centers in out- lying areas. These affiliated branches would differ according to local requirements, but whatever their size, whether represented by a single practitioner or a small hospital, their linkage to the main center would be an assurance of adequate care for the people of the community. Throughout the entire scheme, the general practitioner would be returned to his rightful place and the specialist properly related to his profession.
Second, mindful of the striking inadequacy, "The Committee recommended the ex- tension of all public health services, whether provided by governmental or non-govern- mental agencies, so that they will be available to the entire population according to its needs. Primarily this extension requires increased financial support for official health de- partments already existing."
Third, since the cost of medical care falls very unevenly upon different, and indeed, upon the same families in any one year, and are entirely unpredictable, and since the majority of the population have incomes too low to provide sufficient care, "the Com- mittee recommends that the cost of medical care be placed on a group payment basis, through the use of insurance, through the use of taxation, or through the use of both these methods. This is not meant to preclude the continuation of medical service provided on an individual fee basis for those who prefer the present method."
The Committee recognized that the methods of utilizing the principle are numerous, varying with the type of community, the social and economic groups to be served, and the scope of medical service to be provided. Among possible plans are Voluntary
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 27
Cooperative Health Insurance, Legally Required Health Insurance for low income groups, aid by local governments for health insurance, salaried or subsidized physicians in rural areas, state and federal aid, and a number of other supplementary or temporary plans.
Not one of the foregoing is an untried experiment. All have been extensively tested. The Committee studied them in operation, but preferred voluntary to required measures for the time being at least, though recognizing that voluntary insurance will never cover those who most need its protection. Since a perfect or near perfect plan must come through evolution, the voluntary scheme offers a point of origin. Upon what- ever basis, however, health insurance is offered, it could probably be provided within the limits of $1.50 to $3.00 per adult wage earner per month, with somewhat lower rates for dependents.
Fourth, the principal defect in present day provision of medical service being the lack of coordination, which means that some communities have an over-supply of facil- ities and personnel while others have an under-supply, "the Committee recommends that the study, evaluation, and coordination of medical service be considered important functions for every state and local community, that agencies be formed to exercise these functions, and that the coordination of rural with urban services receive special attention."
Fifth, and finally, the Committee recommended basic educational improvement which will emphasize the social aspects of medical practice.
Perhaps the best test of the foregoing reommendations is the report of the minority. Agreeing in general with the majority on the three recommendations, the minority took strenuous objections to the other two, which dealt with the organization of Medical Services and Group payment for medical services.
That physicians must be conservative is conceded but the doctor must recognize as Secretary Wilbur remarked, "that whether he likes it or not something is going to be done. It is better to have it done by him than to him."
Certain facts are inescapable. Doctors are clamoring for patients, hospitals are be- coming insolvent, and people throughout the nation are suffering from the lack of care. Something inhibits these three from getting together, and this barrier seems to be largely economic. Much of the progress made in the past has been in those fields in which knowledge, technique, equipment, and personnel have been organized under community leadership. Perhaps the advances yet to come will result also from this same sponsorship as the people learn that the greatest reward will come from the expendi- ture of more of their income on services and less on commodities. At any rate the present, though it could be worse, must certainly yield to something more effective. In view of its conservative personnel the Committee was bold, but there is no enacting clause in the report. For the first time, however, a scientific basis was afforded those who wish to attack the perplexing problem of adequate medical care. That the report has educational value and is well worth the million dollars spent for it there can be no doubt.
In spite of the fact that the report of the Committee demonstrated very clearly that we have an over-supply of idle doctors, hospitals that are empty and millions of people in dire need of medical care, with the economic state so broken down that it could not be provided to the people who needed it, this report has gathered dust for nearly three years and only recently has again assumed an importance in administrative affairs. This has been brought about through the creation by the present administra- tion of a group known as the Economic Security Committee, which has for its purpose the creation of security for all the people of this country. In its broad program it includes provision for old age pensions, for unemployment insurance and for medical
28 T he Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
care and hospital care during times of illness. Although a bill designed to take care of these hazards and contingencies of life has been introduced into Congress, that provision that deals with medical care has, for the time being, been omitted from con- sideration. At this time, however, there exists a committee of American physicians and other interested parties, who are charged with the responsibility of drawing up plans whereby medical and hospital care can be furnished to those people of the United States in the low income groups. It is appreciated, of course, that the high income groups (over $10,000) have no problems of importance in the question of medical care. Likewise, the problem is not acute in the income group of five to ten thousand dollars per year, since they also budget an adequate amount for this purpose. It may be stated, that the chief problem is provision of adequate care for those families with an income of less than three thousand dollars per year and especially those in the lower bracket of that classification. Families with incomes of less than twelve hundred dollars per year are considered to be in the charity class so far as medical care is con- cerned. It is this group that is admitted to various city, county and state institutions without cost. As a working basis, then, President Roosevelt's committee has concerned itself mainly with medical care for those people who fall below the two thousand yearly income group.
It is an old truth in medicine that the high income groups and the absolute indigent receive adequate medical care. Those who have suffered most from the lack of it include the people who have incomes of less than two thousand dollars a year. It may be stated that ninety per cent, of the people of Georgia fall within this group.
This administration has utilized the findings of President Hoover's Committee in a study of this question, especially those findings dealing with inadequate medical service. However, they have not seen fit to follow the recommendation of that Committee, especially as concerns the plan for setting up so-called community medical centers. On the other hand, they propose to recommend a system of insurance whereby people of the low income group can pay a small monthly premium, which premium would be supplemented by state funds, this to be further supplemented by aid from the Federal Government. If possible it is the desire that medical insurance premiums should be paid, probably, from four sources: First, from the beneficiary himself; second, from his employer; third, from state funds, and fourth, from federal funds. Thus, this system would be a combination of voluntary insurance and that supplied by taxation. It is at once evident that the institution of such radical changes will necessitate the setting up of a widespread and extensive bureaucracy which may or may not be under the guidance of the medical profession.
It seems to be further contemplated by the Committee that in case of illness of the wage-earning member of the family that unemployment cash benefits be provided along with medical and hospital care. The Committee has recommended further that maternity cases be placed in a special category and that the Government subsidize this type of medical practice in a special way, such as unemployment benefits if the mother is a wage-earner, for medical care during the period of confinement, and even a special cash benefit for the purchase of medical supplies and materials.
The Committee has further proposed that the Federal Government subsidize all public health activities with increased funds so that the State of Georgia, for example, instead of receiving about sixty or seventy thousand dollars for this purpose, would receive practically a million dollars per year.
The committee has repeatedly emphasized that such a plan of insurance would be a voluntary one and that certainly most of the people would not be subject to compulsion relative to joining the insurance program. It is their desire to provide the people of low income an opportunity to budget for illness and disability just as they now have
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 29
an opportunity to budget for old age and for death. It is recognized, however, that a certain section of the population should have a compulsory form of insurance, partic- ularly those who are engaged in industry. This would not be a radical departure from methods already in existence since many states in the union now have compulsory insurance against industrial disability with the premiums paid by employers and em- ployees, and in some instances supplemented by state funds. This plan, known generally as the Workmen's Compensation Act, has in general proved quite successful. It may be briefly stated that it is the purpose of the Federal Government to enlarge this same scheme so as to apply to all classes of people in the low income group.
The Committee has not yet made specific recommendations concerning the charity, or indigent class, and this, of course, still remains a problem. However, there is reasonable assurance that this class of people too will be included in the final recom- mendations.
It may be stated, in summarizing the efforts of the present administration, that this represents merely an attempt on its part to provide for the American people security against the catastrophe of illness and disability and should be applicable not only to the wage-earner, but to other members of the family as well. When a wage-earner becomes ill or disabled he surfers two economic blows: first, the problem of obtaining medical care; and secondly, the loss of income during the period. He is further unfortunate that this particular hazard of life occurs at unexpected and unpredictable times.
There are many plans of insurance against illness which have been conducted by various corporations that have proved to be successful. For example, the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana insures its workers and all members of their families for five dollars a month. This entitles the beneficiary to all forms of medical, dental and hospital care, including preventive medicine. Thus, for a budget of sixty dollars a year an employee can insure himself and his family against all types of illness and disability.
Under the proposed system it would be possible for any insured person to call the physician of his choice. He could also select the hospital of his choice, receive adequate treatment and the physician and hospital would be paid by the central disbursing office.
The average income of physicians is quite low. They have been bearing the burden of the indigent and low income groups, as was recently pointed out by President Roose- velt, who stated that it was unfair to expect the medical profession to continue to bear the burden for the treatment and care of our indigent people. It goes without saying, of course, that the scale of pay would probably be much lower then under the private fee system, but it would mean that the physician would be assured of collecting his bills and certainly be guaranteed a more stabilized income than under the present system. Furthermore, such a plan would not take away from him the best part of his practice, since only the low income group would be included and he still, of course, would be able to practice for his well-to-do patients.
It seems probable that under these conditions the physician might reduce the size of fees that are charged in the upper class by reason of an adequate return from the lower groups. The old plan then of the rich paying for the poor would, in a sense, be abolished. It seems reasonable, furthermore, should this plan become effective, that the hospitals would no longer suffer from the trying financial strain under which they usually operate. For example, the Emory University Hospital in DeKalb County, Georgia, has the building, equipment, plant and the personnel to care for 2 50 to 300 patients, yet the average number of patients in that institution for the last four years has been less than 100. Entire floors of the hospital have been closed because of a lack of patients. The people of DeKalb County can not fill the hospital because of the
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lack of money to pay their bills. In order for the institution to continue to operate with a balanced budget it is necessary therefore that they charge the paying patient a rate of five, six or seven dollars per day. If its entire 2 50 beds were occupied at three dollars per day it would be in a better financial position than under the present system and, no doubt, it would mean that the institution could reduce its rates because of an assured income from the lower economic group.
On the other hand, there are those who oppose this form of medical care because of the dangers of increased taxation for its support.
The organized profession of medicine in the United States, as represented by the American Medical Association, has opposed it because of the fear of interference with that personal relationship between physician and patient, and because of the danger of the medical profession's being placed under the control and domination of a far-flung bureaucracy of politicians. It may be stated, however, that since the medical profes- sion has been unable to meet the problem of medical care in its own way that the time probably has arisen when business people must assume control of this function. The entire question, of course, is one that is eminently debatable. It is agreed by practically all students of the problem that medicine has fallen down in the function of giving adequate medical care to the American people. The fact that it has fallen down, however, is not due to its own shortcomings. The failure of certain sections of our population to receive adequate care when it is to be had just around the corner, is no different from the wholesale destruction of cattle in the West when coal miners in West Virginia were starving. It is no different from the surplus of wool, cotton and other commodities when there are those who do not have adequate clothing. It is not the fault of the profession of medicine itself, but more likely a part of the general economic breakdown, and the effort of the present administration in attempting to make available these services to the people represents only a part of the general program of protecting the people against all of the economic hazards of life. This question has been presented here in its unsolved and embryonic form and is presented as one of the current problems of present-day government.
The entire situation is one of the major problems of the present administration, and represents only a small section of the total economic ills that the government has proposed to alleviate or cure. In the future, medical practice may become a govern- ment function, as is seen now in varying degree in forty-three countries, where it seems generally satisfactory. At least, so far as world government is concerned, it is nothing new.
WITH OUR FIELD ALUMNAE SECRETARY
Elinor Hamilton, '34, in trips this winter and spring, has represented Agnes Scott in many fields. In March a trip into Tennessee claimed her attention. In April Wash- ington, D. C, and Philadelphia, and New York City were the territories covered.
SUGGESTED READING
Reading for alumnae suggested by Dr. Emma May Laney and Dr. Catherine Tor- rance of our Agnes Scott faculty includes the following: Twentieth Century Forces in European Literature, by Agnes Camilla Hansan; The Novel in English, by G. C. Knight; Discovering Poetry, by Elizabeth Drew.
CAPS AND GOWNS
If you have a cap and academic gown in good condition, the Alumnae Association could put it to good use and will extend in exchange a membership in the Association.
CHANGING STANDARDS IN LITERATURE
Dr. George P. Hayes
Professor of English at Agnes Scott College
As we look about us at the literature of today, we are probably puzzled, at first view, by its variety of aspects and characteristics. When we try to analyze, as I have been asked to do, the psychological changes that underlie this literature, we search for a clue not in terms of individuals but of changing ideas, changing standards. To under- stand these — to understand the currents of thoughts in which we live — we must see them against the perspective of the past. In the time at my disposal I can take up only a few phases of this subject, and even so I cannot properly qualify my statements, which may therefore appear unduly dogmatic.
The standards of any age are best studied in its conception of the nature of man. To understand present-day attitudes we must glance first at the older views of human nature.
The Christian church has generally held to the dualistic conception of man, the con- ception that man has two natures or principles — a higher and a lower, a good and an evil. It is man's duty to cleave to the one and abhor the other. Essentially the same conception was held by Aristotle, who explains that man has certain passions that require to be controlled by the reason if he is to arrive at happiness, the goal of life. Thus according to both the Christian and the Aristotelian, the primary problem for the individual is an inner one and involves a struggle for self-mastery. The man who succeeds in this struggle wins for himself an inner freedom which adversities of fortune in the outer world cannot touch. Jesus said, "I have overcome the world," and Socrates exclaimed at his trial: "Know of a certainty that no evil can happen to a good man either in life or death." This inner freedom once achieved, man thereby gains a measure of outer freedom — of freedom of action in the world about him — which he could not have so long as he was the slave of his own passions.
Man's well-being depends, then, on the cultivation of his better self — on the cultiva- tion, that is, of the reason, the ethical will, spirit, conscience. These are not merely the highest elements in man: they are also the elements that distinguish him from nature (by which I mean the physical and animal universe). To cultivate them, then, is to become more human; to slur them over and to cultivate instead the physical and animal side of man is to become less human and more like nature. Consequently both the Aristotelian and the Christian emphasized these humanizing elements and distinguished clearly between man and nature.
It is on the basis of this conception of man as a being possessed of reason and will and thus capable of acting, as it is his duty to do, in accord with the moral law, that the literature of the Classical and Christian traditions at their best is generally based. The characters in Greek or French Classical tragedy or in the older English literature may not live up to this ethical standard, but when they vary from it they do so to their own harm while the standard still abides and is indeed reinforced by the ruin consequent on deviation from it. Literature written from this viewpoint strengthens the ethical nature of the reader and elevates mind and spirit.
About a century and a half ago the dualistic conception of man, on which the Classical and Christian traditions were based, was supplanted, with the coming of the Romanticists, by a monistic view of human nature. According to the new attitude, man is innately good (not good and evil) and consequently does not require control. He should, and indeed must, yield freely to his desires and impulses for he has within no power (and he has no need) to check them. Self-control is neither possible nor desirable. The evil in the world is due to forces outside the individual, especially to the laws, institutions, and conventions of civilization. Remove these unhappy bonds and the
32 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
natural goodness of man will assert itself and the Golden Age of universal peace and happiness will be ushered in.
Thus the very conception of conscience as a check on our lower selves and the con- ception of will as controlling the appetites have no place in the Romantic philosophy. In addition, the Romanticists disparaged the intellect (calling it, with Wordsworth, "the false secondary power that multiplies distinctions") and exalted emotion, so that their ideal became "the beautiful soul," a being whose will and intellect count for little and whose superiority consists in the exquisiteness of his emotional responses. Lacking the guidance of will and intellect and the standard of moral and spiritual values estab- lished by the conscience, "the beautiful soul" becomes an integral part of nature. By nature, in interplay with his emotions and imagination, his actions are determined.
This naturalistic determinism of the Romanticists was reinforced by Science. Thus Huxley refused to draw a line between man and nature, maintaining on the contrary that "The universe is one and the same throughout" and that men are "conscious automata."
Out of this naturalistic determinism of the Romanticists and the scientists came the naturalistic literature represented, in the novel, by Zola in France, Arnold Bennett in England, and Theodore Dreiser in America. In other words, "the beautiful soul" of the Romanticists is twin sister to the commonplace soul, the feeble soul, the ugly soul, the brutal soul (so to speak) of the Naturalists because both derive from a deter- ministic philosophy and a depreciation, or even at times a virtual denial, of the life of intellect, will and conscience in the individual.
It is in terms of this naturalistic movement that we are to explain Ernest Heming- way's hard and callous heroes who live in a world of brute force; Hardy's peasants who are caught in the meshes of environment and chance, against which they cannot genu- inely struggle; the characters in the problem novels of Wells and (to considerable extent) Galsworthy; Theodore Dreiser's cow-like women and bear-like men whose actions are determined by the "chemisms" (to use his term) of which they are composed; Eugene O'Neill's weak and neurotic dramatis persotiae in the grip of complexes which frustrate normal action; H. L. Mencken's glorification of the Nietzschean doctrine that the physically strong shall and ought to crush the weak; and many more, such as Strind- berg and Ibsen in drama, Max Eastman and Edmund Wilson in criticism, and Sherwood Anderson and John Dos Passos in the novel. It has been said that Greek literature is preemiently moral and humane. In losing the very conception of morality, the nat- uralistic literature fails to be genuinely humane. For that reason it presents life as futile and meaningless, and leaves the reader in a mood of pessimism and even despair.
I would not be misunderstood. I am not contending that all characters should be created acording to one pattern. Portray all the types that exist, but set them against a background, as Shakespeare does, of normal humanity, so that the reader may not con- fuse the normal with the abnormal, the brute with man.
Up to this point we have been coonsidering the consequences of the romantic rejec- tion of the dualistic conception of man and the Romantic merging of man in nature, with the resulting depreciation or denial of the traditional emphasis on the ethical will, conscience and intellect. We turn now to a second phase of the Romantic movement which will explain two groups of contemporary writers: the "cult of unintelligibility" to which Gertrude Stein, E. E. Cummings and T. S. Eliot may be said to belong, and the cult of the morbid, the abnormal and the perverted, seen in such authors as Robin- son Jeffers, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill and Marcel Proust. To understand the psychology underlying these groups we must go back first to Aristotle's theory of prob- ability set forth in the Poetics.
Aristotle says that the task of the poet is not to copy the surfaces of life indis- criminately, like the realist. Some people are more representative of humanity, more
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 33
typical, than others; some events are more probable than others according to the normal sequence of cause and effect. The task of the true poet is, with the aid of the imagina- tion, to discern, amid the flux of people and events that constitute life, the typical, the probable, the normal, and to represent these, for his work will then have greater sig- nificance and will achieve what Dr. Johnson called "the grandeur of generality." Such creative work embodies the permanent and the universal underlying the endlessly changing manifestations of life — the One within the Many — and so comes as close to absolute reality as is permitted to human beings. It gives what Goethe calls the illusion of a higher reality.
The writer who has a clear perception of this higher reality has, then, a model or standard whereby, when his imagination creates characters in action, his reason may test these creations to determine to what extent they approximate to that reality. Thus his reason disciplines and limits his imagination to the representation of the typical and the probable. This is the classical theory of imitation analyzed by Aristotle and achieved creatively by Homer, Sophocles and others. It helps to explain the high, philosophic character of Greek literature* and the enlargement of mind which we experience in reading it.
This conception of the co-operation of imagination and reason was lost with the coming of Christianity, for the Christians maintained that the imagination deals with mere appearances and so is the source of lies and illusion, whereas divine revelation alone gives reality. At the Renaissance, the reason was made the supreme guide of life, as for example by Descartes, and the imagination disparaged. But the imagination cannot, in an age freeing itself from authority, be safely disregarded for long because, in the words of Pascal, "the imagination disposes of everything." That is to say, the imagina- tion is "the true driving power in human nature." Consequently, the Romanticists, reacting against the somewhat unimaginative rationalism of the preceding age, overthrew judgment and reason altogether in favor of the untrammeled, uncontrolled indulgence of the imagination. But, as we have seen, the reason should test the creations of the imagination with regard to their probability and representativeness if those creations are to have any general significance and truth. In overthrowing reason and the ethical will, the Romanticists removed the controlling, disciplining influence on imagination, consequently probability and representativeness disappear, and we have the Romantic glorification of the improbable, the strange, the wonderful, the unique, the exotic, the eccentric and the monstrous. This tendency still continues today and explains the con- temporary cult of unintelligibility. In proportion as these writers such as Gertrude Stein and E. E. Cummings get away from what is typical and normal in human experi- ence to what is remote, they become unintelligible. They cease to communicate with others; they talk to themselves alone.
The Romantic cult of the strange, wonderful and improbable likewise leads to modern studies in morbid, abnormal, and perverted people and, generally speaking, to studies in the disintegration of personality. Poe and Dostoievsky were early exponents of this phase of the movement; Faulkner, Proust, Jeffers and O'Neill continue it today. The characters in O'Neill's plays, especially the later plays, are not so much human beings as walking embodiments of Freudian complexes. Such, too, was Mr. Barrett in The Barrets of Wimpole Street. These characters bombard the nerves; they do not touch or elevate the heart. No one denies that they may exist; the criticism is that they have not enough in common with us to stir our sympathies deeply.
There is this difference between the Romantic glorification of the wonderful and the improbable and its modern equivalent, the cult of the abnormal and the morbid: the Romanticists, with their Gothic castles, melodramatic characters, Ancient Mariners, demons and corsairs, did not after all take their day-dreaming very seriously. They were merely amusing themselves and their readers. But in the tales of Poe, the sordid novels
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of Faulkner, and the poems of Robinson Jeffers the Romantic dream has, as Alan Thomp- son notes, turned into a nightmare which appalls and sickens us. The very extravagance of works like these would seem to indicate that we are near the end of the Romantic- Naturalistic movement. It is high time that we return to a representation of the central elements in human experience rather than the peripheral eccentricities. In place of the unrestrained imagination we need a quality of imagination disciplined and controlled with reference to the universal in character and the probable in action.
There remains time to take up but one more phase of the Romantic movement in relation to contemporary literature — namely, the Romantic cult of spontaneity, which explains those writers such as James Joyce, Proust, and Eugene O'Neill who attempt to record the flow of sensation and thought, conscious and subconscious, passing through the mind — the so-called stream of consciousness school.
Now there are two type of spontaneity, as Irving Babbitt has pointed out, and the difference between them is all important. One type, which we may call the lower spon- taneity, is achieved by abolishing intellect and the ethical will; the higher spontaneity is obtained without sacrificing intellect or will — by rising above the rational level rather than by sinking below it. An illustration drawn from Milton will make clear the character of the higher spontaneity. Milton prepared for writing his great epic by long study of the classics and the Bible. Having assimilated the highest culture of the past, he turned for inspiration to God, praying that his passions might be stilled, his mind be purged of the mean and trivial, and his spirit be illuminated from above. In other words, out of a full cultivation of mind and will and a looking above himself for guidance came the spontaneity which found expression in our great English epic.
On the other hand, the Romantic spontaneity, like the Romantic imagination, was achieved at the sacrifice of mind and will. The denial of the life of the conscious mind became with the Romanticists the cult of the unconscious, seen admirably in Wordsworth's exaltation of children above adults as a source of wisdom, and in Carlyle's preference for the Spartans over the Athenians and primitive, semi-barbaric people over civilized men. The Romantic denial of the ethical will, of which I have already spoken, combined with the cult of the unconscious or the subconscious (as we call it today), results in the modern form of spontaneity and explains the writer we are considering. Marcel Proust, for example, got the materials for his novels by holding in abeyance will and conscious intellectual activity — that is, by sinking into a semi-conscious state. James Joyce records the flux of subconscious as well as conscious impressions without bringing into play the selective and controlling power of the will. Eugene O'Neill in Strati ge Interlude and William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury (a study in idiocy) are doing something similar. Now note some of the consequences of the lower spon- taneity in which the individual abdicates will and intellect: since the will does not serve as a controlling power on the flow of consciousness, the psychological result that is recorded in the pages of these writers is an inner chaos, for which the mere outer form of Ulysses, for example, by no means compensates with those readers who would define the artistic process as the transformation of chaos into a cosmos. Let the natural, undisciplined self find full expression, and what emerges more particularly is the sensual self, the sexual impulse, either in normal or perverted forms. (Proust, Sherwood Ander- son, Ulysses). Let the will abdicate its controlling functions, and what Poe calls the Imp of the Perverse takes possession: we are irresistibly drawn to do wrong and soon we are immersed in all forms of evil that end in the disintegration of personality — a com- mon subject of literature from Poe and Hawthorne to the present. Here we should place the school of Satanism seen especially in the French Decadents from Baudelaire to Huysmans. Beyond this complete denial of all true art, morality, and civilization it would be hard to go.
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 35
The consequences of the higher spontaneity, on the other hand, are quite different. I have just mentioned the Satanism of the Decadents. In Paradise Lost we have a sort of Satanism, Satan being a principal character, but Milton's attitude toward and treat- ment of Satanism is radically different from that of the satanic school deriving from Poe. In the first place, the imagination of the modern satanist is obviously fascinated by his satanism and sympathizes with it, whereas Milton sets the Adversary of Man against a moral background which condemns satanism. This difference is all important with regard to the ethical effect of the respective works on the reader. In the second place, although Milton, like O'Neill and Jeffers, treats of the abnormal father-daughter relationship — for Satan conceives an incestuous passion for his daughter Sin, and their offspring is Death — , nevertheless in Milton this abnormality is ascribed to a demon rather than to man, and is kept strictly subordinate to the larger normal elements of the poem as a whole, whereas O'Neill and Jeffers fill the world they create with abnormal beings, so that they make abnormality seem normal. In the third place, Milton repre- sents man as originally noble, bringing on himself endless suffering for his sins, but possessing an inner paradise which is always his if he cultivates his higher nature and which no outer misfortune can deprive him of. There is none of this in the modern school. Finally, through the active exercise of the will, which controls the suggestions of the lower instinctive self, Milton has created not a chaos like Ulysses but an ordered harmonious universe — like the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters, giving form to all things. The result of this higher spontaneity which looks up to what is above man — the divine — rather than to what is below him — the brute-like — is the noblest monument of English poetry.
We have been studying some phases of the Romantic-Naturalistic psychology; in closing let us view its consequences as a whole. The main trend of nineteenth century thought was optimistic. The enormous advance made by science led people into a blind belief that man progresses inevitably from age to age. But a few thinkers saw the deeper, ominous implications of the thought and psychology of the period. Emerson said,
"Things are in the saddle And ride mankind."
Arnold, deeply troubled, turned for guidance to the classical and Christian traditions, which he called Hellenism and Hebraism. Cardinal Newman, rejecting the age and its works, sought salvation in the church. And Carlyle, like Sainte-Beuve, saw with a prophet's eye the confusion coming and called for a dictator. His cry has been heard: we have dictators in plenty. They are the inevitable result of the psychology we have been studying. Once you remove from within the breast of the individual the principle of control which rightly belongs there, presiding like a king over the appetites, you precipitate anarchy, first in the individual himself, then in society. Following anarchy comes the dictator, who subjects society to a rigid outer control. Having no inner check, the individual must submit to an outer check. He has lost his outer freedom because he first lost his inner freedom — that is, the spiritual freedom of the man who is master of himself. The society that turns for its principle of control from the breast of the individual to rigid external regulation takes a step backward toward barbarism. In the words of Milton, true humanist and Christian:
"Reason in man obscur'd, or not obey'd,
Immediately inordinate desires
And upstart Passions catch the Government
From Reason, and to servitude reduce
Man till then free. Therefore since hee permits
Within himself unworthie Powers to reign
36 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
Over free Reason, God in judgment just Subjects him from without to violent Lords; Who oft as undeservedly enthrall His outward freedom: Tyrannie must be, Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse. Yet som times Nations will decline so low From vertue, which is reason, that no wrong, But Justice, and some fatal curse annex t Deprives them of their liber tie, Their inward lost."
I submit that the man who understood so well the fundamental principles of human nature and conduct that his words written two centuries and a half ago should apply precisely to the trend of civilization today and should pass thereon the appropriate moral judgment — notably in that grim line,
"Tyrannie must be, Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse" — such a one is not merely a poet but seer and prophet as well.
Such are the fruits of the Romantic-Naturalistic tradition. Its bankruptcy need by no means lead us to despair about the future: it is premature, to say the least, to write the epitaph for the race of man. Let us rather turn to the truths of the inner life as preserved for us in the wisdom of the past and as testified to by the experience of us all. Let us begin by recognizing as a fact of consciousness that each one has a sense of responsibility for his own deeds and the freedom of will to act according to a moral code by submitting his lower self to the control of his higher. Here we have a form of dualism at the very heart of human experience. By virtue of the ethical will and of the mind — man's distinctive attributes — man is at least partially separated from and placed above nature. The aim of the nineteenth century, says Stuart Sherman, was to place man in nature; the task of the twentieth is to get him out again. If man as man is not a passive victim in nature's hands but on the contrary is capable at his best of purposive action in accordance with the moral law, then to restore this conception to our thinking would be to give to our literature a central significance and a truth to life which it lacks at present and greatly needs.
In addition to this, we should cease to depreciate the mind and that important product of the mind which we call culture. Let us not, with Carlyle, Whitman and others, disparage culture, which Dante recognized to be a potent aid to genius and which should make us all more humane.
Finally, let us recover again if we can that cooperation of the reason with the imag- ination which enables man to represent the enduring that lies behind the flux. It is this type of imaginative reason which Joubert calls the eye of the soul. By means of it we should be able to perceive the permanent human values on which the good life, as well as great literature, ultimately depends.
Whenever a new literary movement is initiated, it is customary for its advocates to revert for models to a former age. To get a really adequate conception of man in pur- posive action set against an ethical background and portrayed by the imaginative reason we should go back to Shakespeare and Milton, the supreme English embodiments of the classical and Christian traditions.
Without turning to the past, however, we can see, if we look about us today, a few creative writers who, in certain respects, represent the viewpoint I am advocating. Robert Bridges in A Testament of Beauty has evolved a Christian philosophy which con- tains important elements from Aristotle and Plato. Robert Frost places man in a more
{Continued on Page 44)
MASTERPIECE
Clara Elizabeth (Whips) Dunn, '16
Chairman of the Curriculum Committee We would little expect to find in John Ruskin inspiration for a program of parent education and still he, better than numerous more modern writers, puts the matter neatly into one sentence: "When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece." We have long been accustomed to the idea that it takes more than an eye for color to paint a picture, more than a mere dramatic instinct to produce great plays, more than an ear for music to compose an intricate symphony, more than a desire to serve humanity to preach a scholarly sermon or perform a delicate operation. Training and technic are taken for granted in all the arts and professions — a high degree of skill com- bined with an overpowering urge being necessary to create a masterpiece. Yet for generations mothers have been attempting to solve the most delicate and difficult and involved of all problems — that of bringing to efficient and serviceable adulthood the human race — by a haphazard combination of emotion and tradition.
"When we are young we ask for bread, And all the stones they give instead We carry with us day by day Along the way.
"At last by grief grown wiser far We know our stones for what they are; But, borne so many an aching year, We hold them dear.
"So when our children ask for truth,
Perhaps for shame, perhaps for ruth,
We give, to make them supermen, The stones again." True with just this love alone many splendid results have been produced. We are thinking of the old mountain woman who said she had raised fourteen and never failed to make a "crap." But she had of necessity acquired a high degree of unconscious technic — a God-given bestowal comparable only to rare supreme genius along other lines — prodigies born with the capacity to mix colors or create melodies. But consider the enormous number of failures mothers have made throughout the ages. By failures we do not mean the comparatively small (although numerically unbelievably large) minority of pitiful wrecks of humanity who fill our jails and insane asylums and reformatories — the suicides, the criminally insane, the alcoholics, the dope fiends, etc., but that far larger number suffering from less spectacular but just as real disorders — the neurotics, the physical weaklings, the anti-social, the emotionally unstable, the savagely acquisitive, the vocational misfits, the agnostics, the mentally retarded, those suffering from inferior- ity or fear complexes, the inordinately jealous, the maladjusted. It is difficult for us to look this appalling list straight in the face and call these unfortunates by their right name — mother-failures. They are failures rarely of mother-love but often of mother- skill.
However, Madame Montressori, intrepid pioneer of modern child education, claims that the quality and quantity of mother love are often taken for granted. Too often we mistake for love a mixture of sentimentality, emotionalism, and family or personal pride. "What we need to do," she points out, "is to change fundamentally our attitude toward the child and love him with a love that sees not solely his faults but his virtues; and which instead of condemning him encourages him and sets him free." Sympathy and good intentions are not enough. Love is dynamic. It creates, it vitalizes, it accom- plishes. Certainly it took a dynamic love to produce The Ring of the Nibelungenlied, or Macbeth, or U Allegro, or The Immaculate Conception, or The Unfinished Symphony.
38 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
A dynamic love alone can produce in our children those qualities we most desire for them: the faith of an Abraham, the intellectuality of Plato, the peresistence of Columbus, the triumphant humanity of Lincoln, the manly charm of Robert E. Lee.
C. V. Hillyer, beloved practical idealist, said once, "All mothers dream dreams. More often than not, however, dreaming is as far as the matter goes whereas only effort will make her dreams come true." Effort, we add, directed by conscious skill, and advanced with the precision of a carefully acquired technic.
We are coming slowly to analyze our needs. About a decade or so ago when the skills of the profession of motherhood first came to be defined they concerned them- selves mainly with the physical aspects of child training and for this reason perhaps the average college woman often refused to consider them with any real enthusiasm while conceding their fundamental necessity. After all how to sterilize a bottle, or prepare a food formula, or just how many pounds Johnny should weigh at the age of four years, five months and three weeks is rather a mechanical process and once conquered these details of physical care tend to become mere routine with little to compel the continued interest or challenge the powers of the college woman accustomed as she is to laboratory methods. But when to the mere physical we add the necessity for moral, spiritual, intel- lectual, and aesthetic development we begin to realize the overwhelming nature of our task and our own inadequacy and unpreparedness. Someone has said that the modern movement for parent education has risen out of the discovery of the mother as an educator. "The parent has been viewed historically as an owner, economically as a pro- vider, politically as a guardian, and religiously as a guide." And now modern thinking has found out that she is an educator. Not that she wants to be! She sends young Tommie to school for his education. But unfortunately we have discovered that young Tommie learns far more in the nineteen hours he spends out of school than in the five brief ones he spends within school walls. We send all of Tommie to school and all of Tommie comes home. We cannot turn off the learning process as you would cut off the water faucet. So we need to know how to help him establish life habits, how to set up ideals, how to develop the best in his personality, how to assist him with problems of group adjustment, how to train him in the proper use of leisure, how to guide him in the choice of an appropriate vocation, how to lead him into an adequate personal reli- gion, how to build his character, how to help him grow up. It is a long way from the baby bottle and the weight chart.
Here is need for a science with as real a content as biology, or chemistry, or sociology, or economics, and with a mission as overwhelmingly important as any of them. Here is need for an art demanding technic just as music, or poetry, or ^painting, and with as great possibilities for the creation of that which is lovely, and even more worthy of the world's deepest respect and highest acclaim.
It does not, however, comprise an entirely new body of unrelated facts, but rather it is a blending or pratical application of a number of other arts and sciences. The medical profession has established the essential physical basis. The field of psychology has furnished knowledge of the child's mental and emotional processes which education has devised ways and means of developing while science, sociology, and religion all have played a part. Lillian Gilbreth's valuable work has shown us that even the principles of industrial engineering applied to the home are of great value as a coordinating and ad- justing factor. Practically every branch of modern thinking has some necessary con- tribution to make. But the burden of being the connecting link between this volume of material and the mother rests upon parent education.
The material alone is not adequate without a concentrating force and particularized application. For example, as great as the contribution of child psychology has been in this work, Stanwood Cobb expresses its limitations: "Fundamentally the adequate
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 39
understanding of the child is a spiritual process. There are many highly trained experts in child psychology to whom I would not entrust children for training. They have become too much crystallized in the doctrines of child psychology. They are technicians rather than artists." It is because child training demands an artist that we need to acquire the complicated and highly specialized technic of motherhood.
Of course, the time to acquire any skill properly is long before the actual need for it arises. The busy columnist of a daily paper intent on producing his bit would be seriously handicapped if he had to learn to spell the words he was using, or was com- pelled to refer constantly to his volume of elementary rhetoric. And yet many an earnest young mother waits until Jane has a temper tantrum to study the most funda- mental laws of conduct control, or until negativism has developed in young Billy to find out what to do about it. Surely such a policy can only meet, and has always met, with failure.
However, for those of us in this generation who are concerned right now with Sue's sullenness, or John's adolescent instability, the best substitute we can offer for a carefully acquired technique is to thumb the cook book with one hand while we mix the biscuits with the other, and this is just what the parent education movement, advanced by the national P.-T. A., and aided by the government and numerous other agencies, is trying to do. But its best efforts strike one as futile, erratic, and insufficient, not only because of a scarcity of trained, well-qualified leadership, but also because of the general lethargy on the part of mothers in general, and college mothers in par- ticular. Then, too, there has been in the past a dearth of any real scientific but simple and practical literature. Perhaps this has been because mothers have been the very last group of people to learn the value of keeping records and tabulating results. However, every day sees real progress made along this line. Such writers as Sidone Gruenberg, G. C. Myers, Angelo Patri, Ada Hart Artlett, W. E. Blatz, and many others are pro- ducing a wealth of pamphlets, articles, and books whose only aim is to give the mothers now in the firing line some elementary instructions in military maneuires. Let us hope the next generation will not send its soldiers to battle so completely unprepared.
The bigness of the task and the permanency of the result should appeal particularly to the college woman. Where is there to be found a thinking person of mature years who does not long to project herself, her personality, into the future? To this end many paint, and write, and compose. To this end many put their faith
"in brave, bright words That fashioned are in pain That wring the colors from the earth, The silver from the rain." and others
"in strong sure hands That mold in clay or stone The dream that feeds upon each soul." And still we know that those desiring immortality would do better to select ma- terials more lasting than granite, more enduring, more permanent: "But beat the stone to blowing dust Stifle the golden song! Such immortality as this Will last a brief day long! "Let your heart be workman then, Your fashioning be fleet! A little face and little hands And little wayward feet!"
40 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
— a living spirit ready to respond to your touch with melodies of divine sweetness, a soul immortal ready to be molded into eternal patterns of sublime beauty.
If the recent depression has taught us anything at all it is the difficulty of leaving our children any sort of permanent possessions. Money? What was sounder than Rus- sian government securities before the war? The French, notorious for their ability to find safety for their money, staked theirs there. What was sounder, what was more permanent than Germany before the war — great in military powers, great in industry, famous for her teachings of thrift? Certainly the English pound was worth its face value everywhere. Yet any parent who placed his faith in leaving his child Russian bonds or German marks or English pounds would find that he had really not provided for his future at all. From money alone we cannot model a masterpiece of manhood. Social position? The New York Blue Book has omitted from its recent edition scores of names thought fixed there by a past generation.
"Change and decay is all around I see." How often during the last few years these words of the old song have rung in our hearts with a new and more poignantly bitter meaning! Where then can we seek for lasting gifts to leave our children? Does nothing remain? The same old hymn hastens to give us the answer: "O Thou who changest not!" The Lord Jehovah — from everlasting to everlasting, and out of those qualities which are God-like can a permanent masterpiece be built. Love never fails; hope springs eternal; by faith new miracles are done. And the mother who has given to a human soul character bulwarks, God-like qualities, has created a masterpiece which will outlast the pyramids and be remembered when music, poetry and painting are no more.
This glory of creation gives to motherhood that quality of supreme concentration and joy in accomplishment found only in the genius and the little child to whom work and play are one. Michelangelo, laboring day and night for four years — high on a scaffold much of the time — to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, would have had neither time nor inclination to adopt a fixed scale of hours nor to join an artists' union, even if there had been one handy. And four-year-old Mary, building her block house or cooking her dolly's "mud-pie dinner," is equally intent. If motherhood is to rank with the arts, it must share with Mary and Michelanigelo this utter disregard of time, seasonableness and self-interest, this complete absorbtion in joyful creation.
Of course, delight in doing anything comes only after the mastery of some of the skills. Mary would not enjoy being required to make a blue print for a skyscraper since she has never heard of the first principles of architectural drawing, and Michelangelo would probably have been bored if he had had to express his ideas by means of a com- plicated fugue, without adequate mastery of the technic of musical composition. As mothers acquire the skill necessary to guide the behavior, and form the ideals, and develop the personalities of their children, motherhood will become an art, and mothers will take their places beside the greatest of all creative genuises.
And best of all enthusiastic interest will replace the boredom with which many mothers, especially college-bred mothers, have been apt to regard the task of bringing to worthwhile adulthood the next generation. To create because of dynamic love and with paramount skill — herein lies that which links us to the Divine whose function all creation is.
What then is this masterpiece which every artist-mother longs to create with all her love and skill? A boy or girl whose ideals are established, whose body radiates the joy of health, whose mind is well-trained, whose habits are the best, whose spirit is alive to all that is good and beautiful, whose affections include both God and man, whose soul is aflame with a desire to servf his country, his day, humanity and his Maker. What drama so compelling, what picture so glorious, what statue so lovely, what masterpiece in all the world is so worthwhile as this?
THROUGH LITERATURE TO LIFE
Mrs. J. O. Martin
Atlanta, Georgia
The late Dr. Marvin Parks once said, "The tragedy of life is that any child is allowed to fail." What can prevent this better than an educated motherhood? Good reading matter is a constant source of helpfulness in this respect.
Literature is a definite means to the extension of the capacity for living. Through vicarious experience only can life be expanded indefinitely. The power to give this ex- perience is peculiar to the arts, of which literature is a ranking one.
Considering the vast opportunities open to children in realms of literature, the hidden, soul-stirring and uplifting works of recorded thought, educated mothers attempt to place within the grasp of their children those things that lead to finer and nobler development.
What could represent the power of literature more than:
"He ate and drank the precious words
His spirit grew robust He knew no more, that he was poor
Nor that his frame was dust. He danced along the dingy way
And his bequest of wings Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings."
Angelo Patri, one of America's authorities on childhood education, says: "It seems to me that a boy or girl can have no greater, richer gift than a love of reading. Once they can read and enjoy their readings, they have the whole treasure of life within their reach." He believes that every normal child will educate himself, if opportunities are made available. These opportunities can be made available only by those who have a deep understanding of young hopes and desires and potentialities. Only can a person with ideals encourage them, with vital habits instill them, with a knowledge of litera- ture give to their own that Open Sesame to fact and fancy, to life as revealed in litera- ture.
A child's eager interest in books is not accidental. It has been stimulated by prac- tical knowledge of what he likes to read and a keen and critical knowledge of what should be read.
After the first flexible animal, train, and boat picture books, Mother Goose with its repetitions definitely appeals to the child. Care is given by knowing parents to the selec- tion of those editions which are illustrated by the best artists. Even then they should be examined carefully before being given to the child and any illustrations which may tend to frighten, stimulate bad dreams, or make him conscious of the dark, should be destroyed. As he becomes familiar with this, his first book, we would not have him meet with grotesque, startling figures which might impress fear upon his mind. These first impressions are lasting ones, and infinite care is imperative lest there be scars left on a little nervous system.
Soon, the little one's interests begin to enlarge, and he finds Mother Goose inadequate. A wise parent has acquainted her child at the age of four or five with a score of classics. He now lives in the Land of Make-Believe and enjoys Goldilocks, Briar Rosebud, and other old, old tales retold. When fairy stories are begun in earnest, a marvelous world of wonder is opened. New doors are swung ajar when these first sunny stories of little plots that end happily are given him.
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At this time poems are very welcome for the definite appeal that rhythm makes. It is remarkable how readily the child memorizes. The swing of the words, the inter- mittent jingle of similar sounds stimulate his attention. Natural interest is utilized to its fullest extent in short, suitable poems. Poems form the best type of bed-time stories, for the mind is very receptive in the darkened room. Many of the gems of Eugene Field, Robert Louis Stevenson, Longfellow, and Christina Rosetti are splendidly adapted to this purpose. Selections from Poem of Childhood and A Child's Garden of Verses will enable the small boy or girl to
"Go to bed ivith backward looks At my dear land of story-books."
All children love stories and that
"... pause in the day's occupation That is known as the Chidren's Hour"
should be a sacred one consecrated to inspire and delight the youngsters gathered about the fireside ready to be transported to a mystical land of fairies or to dwell in realms of historic fantasies. The story is universal in its appeal. On school-room walls of Japan and age-old China, I once saw water color illustrations of childhood stories similar to our own, especially do I recall the counterpart of our Gingerbread Boy.
The story hour should be a definite part of the daily program of the home where there are young children.
"You may have tangible wealth untold Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold Richer than I you can never be I had someone who told stories to me." ■
"Wise mothers do not make the error of reading to their children when they should read for themselves. Tests innumberable show that rapid readers are accurate ones and only by practice can a child attain speed in picking up an "eye-full of words."
Before ten years of age, folk tales and myths are eagerly read. Joel Chandler Harris, Rudyard Kipling, and Hans Anderson have preserved works most instrumental in character building. There is now a peculiar delight in satisfying a characteristic cheer- fulness, an instinctive carefulness and helpfulness which may be fostered to advantage. The thirst for magical beauty is satisfied by stories of magic, of ingenuity by guessing riddles, of love of out-of-doors by Indian lore and animal stories, of industry by creative stories. A well-equipped mother and teacher are aware of the ways in which literature, in its manifold phases, responds to the characteristics of the child.
Soon comes the age of appreciating something surprising and different. Wonder, at this time, is a precious possession, and the principle literary equipment. The main in- terest now lies in thrilling adventure and effusion of blood. Stories of Pioneer Life, Child Life in Many Lands, Around the World, Cape and Tree Dwellers, Alice in Won- derland, Siviss Family Robinson, The Young Marooners, Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood, Arabian Nights, The Story of Mankind, and scores of others are immensely enjoyed.
The tide of hero worship rises to its heights after this period. Worthy heroes and fine shadowy and mystical ideals in the epics of knighthood furnish excellent food for thought. Stories of world heroes, great Americans, King Arthur, stories from the Bible, The Iliad, The Odyssey, biography, may, with many others, be given now.
Before leaving junior high school, our children must have some others that have withstood the test of time, living to the present, to the youth of today, the works of immortal masters. What childhood associations could be complete without David
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly 43
Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Little Women, the autobiography, Tales from Shakespeare, Les Miserables (abridged), Ivanhoe, Treasure Island and the rest we loved and cherished so, as children?
Sometimes such books as Tom Sawyer and Penrod bridge a chasm from indifference to genuine interest.
Ruskin said, "All books are divisible into two classes, the books of all time and books of. the hour." Because this is a new world and different from the one we knew as children we must do more than provide our old favorites. The best of the new books should likewise be theirs.
Again, can one who is not acquainted with literary standards judge? College preparation is an indisputable source of helpfulness in this. An educated mother knows how to supplement her own ideas with competent sources of reference. Standard libraries and literary guilds will help to secure the newer books that combine fascinating contents and choice diction with wholesome human values and facts whose accuracy is not questioned. Among the newer books in which there are no cheap, super-thrilling unrealities are those awarded the Newberry medal: Lofting, The Voyage of Dr. Doolittle; Mukerji, Gayneck, the Story of a Pigeon; James, Smoky, The Cowhorse; Finber, Tales from Silver Lands; Hawes, The Dusk Frigate; Chrismen, Shen of the Sea; Kelly, The Trumpeter of Krakow, and others.
Any books recommended by the staff of the Junior Literary Guild or standard libraries may be relied upon with safety, such as Forgotten Gods, Children's Country, Boy's Book of Salvage, You Make Your Own Luck, A Daughter of the Seine, Circus Mena- agerie, The Beckoning Road, The Bastable Children, and many others which are safe and enjoyable.
Periodicals of high type and the wise use of newspapers for current history, in order for them to live with the living, are urged for growing children.
One thing for which there is no substitute is the home library. Only can a lover of books make a home where books are welcomed with delight and read with joy. Children who have adequate library facilities in the home not only possess a far better under- standing of literature, but they manifest a greater interest in books throughout their lives. Around his own fireside, a child should become acquainted with the masters. With the habit of reading early developed, the seeds deeply implanted, there need be no anxiety as to the continuance of this practice. With little expense, the home library may be maintained with additions made at intervals. If, in later year, the child can always associate the great works with which he comes in contact, with his earlier readings, think of the incomparable value!
A child has increased interest in books if he is allowed, under guidance, to take part in the selections for his own bookshelves. The pride of ownership is valuable.
We have recently been moved by the artistic interpretation of David Copperfield on the screen. I wonder if little Freddie Bartholomew, in portraying the character of young David, could have done it with the sympathetic understanding, delicate feeling and rare diction if he had not been a child of books.
Who can measure the power and influence of good books? Who can guide and direct a child's literary interests better than his mother, if she is a book-conscious mother? She will protect him from pitfalls and dangers.
Among the excavated ruins of old Pompeii may be seen the casts of figures as they were overwhelmed by the molten fire that so disastrously engulfed them. Near the remains of a terror-stricken animal, there is a human arm around the body of a little child. On this graceful arm are bracelets, showing it to be that of a woman — yea, a mother who in her Gethsemane hour risked her all to save her child. Such a motherhood-
44 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
The aim of every mother is to protect and to prepare her children for a full life, for a maturity enriched and broadened in interests and in sympathetic understanding. Can you visualize a more pathetic figure than an adult circumscribed by a wall that shuts out the past, limits the present, and deadens the future — a colorless existence, uninter- esting to its fellows, and deprived, unfairly, of the pleasures and rewards that are made available through fruits?
"For the gardens bear rich fruits . . . but to the favored few who dig for them."
So closely allied with life are books that the scope of books may be compared to the ancients' worship of the dawn with all its possibilities, for may it not be said of the fine art of literature that it contains:
"The very life of life . . . all the varieties And realities of existence. The bliss of growth The glory of action The splendor of beauty, The . . . dreams of yesterday, The visions of tomorrow."
CHANGING STANDARDS IN LITERATURE
{Continued from Page 36) nearly humanistic relationship toward nature and country people than any important poet in a long time. Willa Cather sees man struggling with nature and winning out through his heroic qualities. Edna Millay perceives clearly the dualistic nature of man and his responsibility for his own destiny.
These individuals I have not discussed because they do not belong to the main trend of the literature of today and I have had time for the main trend only. With them I would place a group of thinkers and critics — notably Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More — who have tried to establish a humanistic scale of values in place of the present naturalistic attitudes. This attempt, as I have endeavored to show, has more than a mere literary importance, for it has to do, in the last analysis, with the individual prob- lem of the conduct of life. In the direction of Humanism, I believe, the hope of the future lies.
FOUNDER'S DAY AT HOME AND ABROAD
Sara Cook, '3 5 Alumnae Office Assistant
Once more the students, alumnae, and friends of Agnes Scott celebrated Founder's Day. We feel that the most important phase of this celebration is the annual radio broadcast over WSB which brings so many of our alumnae and friends nearer to us. The program went out through the courtesy of WSB from five to five-thirty o'clock on February 22.
We are glad to learn that the program carried so far. We have had reports from Chicago, New Haven, and Orlando, so we are going to be very optimistic and hope that at some time in the near future our program will reach all points — North, East, South, and West.
The program this year included: A Welcome to the Alumnae from Miss Hopkins; A Message from the Trustees by Mr. George Winship; a discussion of The Building Pro- gram of Agnes Scott, by Dr. McCain; A Word About the Alumnae Week-End, by Lucile Alexander, '11; and a musical program arranged by Mr. Lewis H. Johnson, a member of the Agnes Scott Music Department.
Miriam Dean, ex '20, accompanied by Mr. C. W. Dieckmann, member of the Agnes Scott Music Department, opened the program with a solo, "Homing," by M. D. Del Riego. The triple trio from the Agnes Scott Glee Club also participated. The members of the trio are: Virginia Wood, Augusta King, and Jane Clark, Atlanta, Ga.; Alice Chamlee, and Nelle Chamlee, Canton, Ga.; Rosa Miller, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; Geral- ine Young, Angier, N. C. ; Betty Lou Houck, Bradenton, Fla.; and Shirley Christian, Chattanooga, Tenn. Evelyn Wall, of Atlanta, accompanied the triple trio for their first selection, "The Night Wind," by R. Farley.
This radio program was not the only program in celebration of Founder's Day at Agnes Scott though, for various groups of Agnes Scott boosters celebrated in their own way.
Kate Clark, '13, of Montgomery, Ala., was hostess for the great event on February 22, with an enthusiastic group from Montgomery, Wetumpka, and Millbrook, Ala., listening in to the broadcast.
The broadcast went over well in Charlotte, N. C, according to Pernette (Adams) Carter, '29, recently elected president of the Charlotte Club, which has been reorganized on a new system based upon the division of the membership into groups according to the time in college, each group being headed by a key-member who is responsible for the attendance of her group. A telegram from some of these alumnae stated, "The voices of Dr. McCain and Miss Hopkins sound as pleasing as the clink of a coin in a blind man's cup."
Polly (Brown) Bowers, ex '29, writes that she listened to the Founder's Day broad- cast on February 22, all alone since there were not other Hottentots in Kingsport, Tenn. Nevertheless she got that homesick feeling we all get when we gather around the radio and hear the sweet voice of Miss Hopkins speaking to us once more as a group of Agnes Scott girls.
In Knoxville, Tenn., the Agnes Scott alumnae were invited to a tea at the home of Emilie (Ehrlich) Strasburger, '27. Frances (Stuart) Key, ex '23, secretary of the Knoxville Club reports that they have been forced to discontinue their meetings during the past year but that they hope to hold regular meetings this year.
The Mississippi Agnes Scott Alumnae Club did things up in a big way with a state meeting at Jackson. They celebrated Founder's Day at a luncheon at the Mary Frances Tea Room in Jackson. The luncheon was followed by a formal meeting and the cele- bration ended with the Founder's Day broadcast over WSB. Shirley (Fairly) Hendrick
46 The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
'19, Annie Tait Jenkins, '14, state president; and Sarah (Till) Davis, '22, state secre- tary, were in charge of the arrangements for the occasion.
The Atlanta Agnes Scott Club, the Decatur Agnes Scott Club, and the Business Girls' Group of the Atlanta Club celebrated Founder's Day with a dinner at the Druid Hills Golf Club on Friday evening after the broadcast.
The Hendersonville, N. C, alumnae and the Tryon alumnae listened in to the broadcast at the home of Gladys (Lee) Kelly, '11.
Four Agnes Scott alumnae in Troy, Ala. — Sue (McEachern) Bean, ex '16, Pearle (Waters) Lee, ex '16, Mary (Enzor) Bynum, '13, and Charlotte Smith, '25, enjoyed a Founder's Day dinner at the home of Mary Bynum. They met at five o'clock to listen to the broadcast, which Charlotte says made them downright homesick for Agnes Scott. After dinner they spent an hour swapping stories, and Charlotte says, "Mary and Pearle were reduced to giggling in the true school girl fashion upon recalling the night that Pearle (being used to a south Alabama climate) simply could not get warm and finally resorted to using newspapers (in addition to all of her blankets) which rattled noisily every time she moved."
According to Charis (Hood) Barwick, '16, Reba Vinnedge, ex '24, entertained the Chicago crowd at a reunion luncheon on Saturday, February 23. Martha (Eakes) Matthews, '24, was elected president, and Lillian (Beatty) Schuhman, '13, secretary. Others who were present are: Nell Esslinger, ex '23; Annette (Carter) Colwell, '27; Marjorie Daniel, '31; Helen Duke, '31; Emmie (Ficklen) Harper, '24; Ruth McDonald, '27; and Lois (Bolles) Knox, '26.
The Birmingham alumnae met at the Sixth Avenue Presbyterian Church for their Founder's Day banquet. Anabel (Stith) Self, ex '23, gave a reading.
The Chattanooga alumnae have organized a regular club, meeting for the first time on the afternoon of Founder's Day. Rosemary May, '3 3, made arrangements, and will serve as chairman for this group. ,t The Baltimore alumnae met for tea on the twenty-second.
We wish to thank each and every alumna who helped to make Founder's Day cele- bration a success by her cooperation. The newspaper notices were valuable advertise- ment for the college, and we appreciate your help in this undertaking too. We wish to thank particularly those who took time to write and those who sent telegrams. Under the latter heads we mention: Ida (Beckham) Remfry, ex '97; Annie Tait Jenkins, '14; Sa- rah (Till) Davis, '22;yShirley (Fairly) Hendrick, '19^Elizabeth (Watkins) Hulen, '19; s/Marguerite (Watkins) Goodman, '21; Susan Glenn, '32; Charlie Alexander, '33; Bella Wilson, '34p£lizabeth Hoke, '23;vZou (Woolford) Raine, '30; Rosemary May, '33 Eliz- abeth (Grimm) Sisk, ex '21; Jane Blair, ex '36; Corrie Blair, ex "i5;rfean (Powel) Mc- Croskey, '09; Margaret (Briscoe) McCallie, ex 'll;i^Tmilie (Ehrlich) Strasburger, '27; Mary Ray Dobyns, '28H\ddie (Boyd) Pattillo, Institute; Mildred (Holmes) Dickert, '14;
VTorter Cowles, ex '3 3;i^Raemond Wilson, '3 0; /•Sara Glenn, '2 8; Virginia Prettyman, '34^Laura Ross, ex '34; Dee Robinson, '32; Gussie Rose Riddle, '34;'Clyde (McDaniel) Jackson, 'lOj^-Maude (Shute) Squires, ex '17,vMarion (Symmes) Candler, special;
^thel (Rea) Rone, '19; Maria Rose, '25; Mary (Keesler) Dalton, '25;HLouisa Duls, '26; Irene Lowrance, '28;VPernette (Adams) Carter, '29Hvlildred Greenleaf, '30; Belle Ward Stowe, '30;HVIiss Jennie Smith, the New York Alumnae, the Jacksonville Alumnae, the Washington, D. C, Alumnae, the Chattanooga Alumnae, the Montgomery Alumnae, the Hendersonville Alumnae, the Tryon Alumnae, the Charlotte Alumnae, **Frankie (McCrory) Armistead, and Mrs. J. E. Lowe, mother orPearl Lowe (Hamner) Betts, '21; ^<Betty Hansen, ex '3 5 ;^>Iabel (Ardrey) Stewart, Jujia (Haygood) Cuthberson.
REGISTRATION FOR THE FOURTH ALUMNAE
WEEK-END
Guests
Mrs. C. H. Soutter
Mrs. Philip T. Murkett
Mrs. A. H. Warden
Mrs. John Morton Smith
M. R. Thomson
Luelle Brand Rollesten
Mrs. H. C. Phipps
Mrs. Devereaux McClatchey, Jr.
Virginia Watts Beak
Mrs. Paul D. Bryan
Mrs. Henry McGehee
Mrs. Cadesman Pope
Mrs. George W. Suggs
Dr. Iva M. Miller
Mrs. Mac Moore
Mrs. Edgar Craighead
Mrs. Will Co'e Jones •
Mrs. George Hayes
Mrs. Philip Davidson, Jr.
Mrs. McQueen Smith
Mrs. W. S. Beasley
Mrs. Henry Robinson
Miss Emily Laird
Mrs. Garrard
Pauline Branyon
Mrs. C. H. Pritchard
Mrs. F. H. Gaines
Mrs. John M. Smith
Mrs. Julius Scott
Mrs. C. 0. Wike
Mrs. Thomas D. White
Mr. Thomas D. White
Mrs. Dan C. Clarke
Mrs. Josiah B. Brennan
Mabel Geis
Mrs. Frank Harwell
Beulah Chamlee
Mrs. P. R. Allen
Mrs. T. N. Fulton
Mrs. Lester Petrie
Mrs. L. P. Skeen
Mrs. Clyde Langford
Faculty
Miss Annie Mae Christie Dr. Catherine Torrance Miss Leslie Gaylord Miss Melissa Cilley Miss Ada Page Foote Dr. T. W. Whitaker Dr. S. M. Christian
Alumnae
Academy Mary (Hubbard) Teter Lucy (Johnson) Ozmer Susie Johnson Jennie Eva (McDonald) Duke
Institute Annie (Emery) Flinn Emma Wesley Susan (Young) Eagan
Sue Lou (Harwell) Champion Louise (Scott) Sams Ethel (Alexander) Gaines Edith (Far linger) Smith
1910 Eva (Towers) Hendee Eleanor Frierson Lucy (Reagan) Redwine
1911 Adelaide L. Cunningham Julia (Thompson) Gibson
1912 Julia Pratt (Smith) Slack
1913 Emma Pope (Moss) Dieckmann ACie (Candler) Guy
1914 Martha (Rogers) Noble Helen (Brown) Webb
1915 Annie Pope (Bryan) Scott
1916 Margaret Phythian Clara (Whips) Dunn Maryellen (Harvey) Newton
1917 Mynelle (Blue) Grove Augusta (Skeen) Cooper Willie Belle (Jackson) McWhorter
1918 Margaret Leyburn Evamaie (Willingham) Park Belle Cooper
1919 Llewe'lyn Wilburn Lulu (Smith) Westcott Elizabeth (Dimmock) Bloodworth
1920 Helen Williamson Margaret (Bland) Sewell
1921 Marguerite (Cousins) Holley Anne (Hart) Equen Eugenia (Johnston) Griffin Janef Preston Mariwil (Hanes) Hulsey Gladys (McDaniel) Hastings Sarah Fulton
1922 Helene (Norwood) Lammers Frances (Stokes) Longino
1923 Maybeth (Carnes) Robinson Sarah Be'le (Brodnax) Hansell Jennye (Hall) Lemon Elizabeth (Lockhart) Davis Ethelyn (Allen) Warner Margaret (Brenner) Awtrey Beth (Flake) Cole
1924 Mary (Mann) Boon Frances (Gilliland) Stukes Rebecca (Bivings) Rogers
48
The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly
1925
Margaret (Rogers) Law Elizabeth (Woltz) Currie Helen (Lockhart) Watkins Anne McKay Ruth Johnston
1926 Sarah Slaughter Elizabeth (Moore) Harris Leone (Bowers) Hamilton Edythe (Coleman) Paris Hazel (Huff) Monaghan Rosalie (Wootten) Deck Olive (Hall) Shadgett
1927 Ellen Douglas Leyburn Louisa (White) Gosnell Katharine (Gilliland) Higgins Mary (Weems) Rogers Lelia (Joiner) Cooper Milred (Cowan) Wright Kitty Johnson
1928 Eloise Gaines
Frances (Craighead) Dwyer Mary Waller Shepherd
1929 Katherine (Hunter) Branch Olive (Spencer) Jones Bettina (Bush) Carter Mary (Warren) Read Dorothy Hutton Margaret (Garretson) Ford Gladys Austin Mary Prim Lillie Bellingrath Elizabeth (Moss) Mitchell
1930 Bee Miller Marie Baker
1931 Julia (Thompson) Smith Elizabeth Flinn Eunice Lawrence Jean (Grey) Morgan Cornelia Taylor
1932 Mary Duke
1933 Page Ackerman Laura J. Spivey
Kitty (Woltz) Green Margaret Telford
1934 Elinor Hamilton Sarah Austin Katherine White Special Mrs. Lawrence Mansfield
Children Page Davidson, 11 Miriam Benedict, 11 Billy Lammers, 4 Cecil Lemon, 8 Nancy Quayle, 11 Sam Guy, Jr., 9 Jeanne Lemon, 10 Toy Watkins, 7 Mary Alice Lemon, 11 Ernest Hulsey, Jr., 6 Mynelle Grove, 8 Bertha Grove, 8 Betty Moore Harris Claudine Gibson, 8Y2 Graham Grove Julia Slack, 10 Beth Daniel, 10 Philip Davidson, III, 7 Bill Crowell, 8 Ann Boon, 4 Charles McCain, 11 Mildred McCain, 9 Anne Hayes, 7 Ellen Hayes, 9 Henry Hayes, 4 Judith Hastings, 10 Harry Hastings, 6 Anne Robinson, 8 Henry Robinson, 5 Jane Anne Newton, 9 Reese Newton, 6 Louise Quayle, 8 Marian Warner, 10 Peggy Awtrey Linton Deck, 5% David Deck, 4 Adele Dieckmann Flossie Williamson Betty Park, 12 Fonville McWhorter, Jr., 6V2 Jack Webb, 7
TO THE ALUMNAE:
This issue has grown out of requests made to the Alumnae Office that the lectures of the Alumnae Week-End be made available for out-of-town sub- scribers who could not get back for that occasion, that the messages of the Founder's Day radio broad- cast be printed for the benefit of those who could not get the program, and from a desire on the part of the Office for all alumnae who made Dr. McCain's portrait possible to see it as completed. The amount of copy curtailed the printing of the usual office notes, bits of campus news and personal items. Of the latter, many have come into the office through the efforts of the fine corps of class secretaries who work faithfully for each issue. These personals will appear in the July issue. The lectures and messages are printed in their natural time sequence of Feb- ruary 22 and 23. It is our hope that you will find in them new encouragement and stimulation to study.
The Alumnae Association has carried a number of subscribers of the 1933-1934 session for the last three issues of the magazine, believing that these members would continue their memberships with us. It is with real discouragement that we note the many who have not responded to our appeals for dues. If you are of that number, please let us hear from you at once. This is the last issue that will be mailed to you, if your 1934-1935 membership is not paid.
This is your publication, and we welcome your sug- gestions as to makeup and content. As requests brought about this issue, so other requests v/ill be met in the future. Let us have your reaction to the Quarterly.
Expressing the hope of seeing you on the campus this spring, and with every good wish from Agnes Scott,
Sincerely,
DOROTHY HUTTON, '29
General Secretary Agnes Scott Alumnae Association.
FOR REFERENCE
NOT TO BE TAKEN FROM THIS ROOM
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