The College News VoutumeE III. No. 23 BRYN MAWR, PA., APRIL 18, 1917 Price 5 Cents DR. DAVIS TELLS OF WORK ON PAROLE COMMISSION Opportunity for Preventive Work in Lower School Grades WOMAN CRIMINAL A PROBLEM Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, Chairman of the Parole Commission of New York City and for many years Superintendent of the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford Hills, addressing Miss Kingsbury’s Social Study Class Saturday night on the problem of the woman crim- inal, made the startling announcement that she had never found college women in prison. No College Women in Prison “In all my experience I have never come across a college woman in prison”, Dr. Davis declared. Most of the women have never been above the elementary school grades. Some are so ignorant they do not even know a war is going on. Very few are ever skilled workers. The per cent of delinquents is greatest among Ameri- can born children of foreign parents, who look down upon their mother and home as un-American. “I knew I mustn’t steal in Russia, but I thought this was a free country”, one girl explained. Her appeal was for sympathetic teach- ers, to ylo preventive work in the lower grades of the public schools; and for more widespread industrial training, to enable girls to earn honestly such material com- forts as they may crave. One-third May Be Reformed Excluding those mentally deficient, Dr. Davis believes that with careful super- vision one-third of the women brought in can be permanently reformed and another third at least noticeably improved. The Parole Commission, which Dr. Da- vis created and of which she is the present chairman, watches each case and decides when a prisoner is ready to go on parole. To secure its highest efficiency Dr. Davis is now working for an indefi- nite sentence to replace the present maxi- mum one of three years. MR. G. B. BARR WILL HEAD B. M. BELGIAN RELIEF COMMITTEE ACCEPTS HONORARY CHAIRMANSHIP Mr. George Barr Baker, head of the Spe- cial Appeals Committee of the Commis- sion for Relief in Belgium, who spoke here in February, has consented to be- come the honorary chairman of the Bryn Mawr Committee for Belgian Relief. His letter to the chairman, E. Granger ’17, reads: “My dear Miss Granger: Your letter of March 27th has just been handed to me on my return from a short trip to Illinois. I am afraid you are conferring upon me an honor to which I am not entitled. I happen to be merely the instrument or means of bringing to you a few facts con- cerning the great work in which we are laboring. However, I shall be delighted to accept the honorary chairmanship of the Bryn Mawr committee, a committee in which all of us are unusually inter- ested. I feel very grateful to you personally for this honor and wish you would convey to the members of the committee my deep appreciation. Sincerely yours, George Barr Baker’, EMINENT SCIENTIST DESCRIBES PLANT GROWTH Regeneration, Not a Feeling for Form NEW THEORIES DISCLOSED Dr. Jacques Loeb, of the Rockefeller Institute, “the man of the fatherless frog”, spoke in Taylor on Saturday night on the regeneration of plants. His lecture was illustrated with slides made from draw- ings and with specimens of the plants discussed, which were passed around the audience in watch-glasses. One of the interesting points brought up in the course of the speech was that regeneration is not a feeling for form or Morphesthesia. It has been a mystery in the healing of a wound why the cells should stop their rebuilding of tissue at a certain point, and this was explained as recently as twenty years ago as a feeling for symmetry and form in the cells. If the horizontal branches of the top of a pine tree are cut off, the new branches grow up vertically and this was thought to be due to an appropriate tendency on the part of the cells to correct the sym- metry of the top of the tree. Bermuda Life Plant Used as Experiment Dr. Loeb explained the interesting growth of the so-called Bermuda life- plant, or Bryophyllum, a creeping plant with notched leaves. He told how, out of the notches in these leaves, sprang new stems and roots, forming another genera- tion. The most curious thing about this regeneration, however, is that there is more growth of the new roots if the parent leaf is not attached to its stem. The stem seems to take the nutriment (Continued on Page 6) EDITH WYNNE MATTHISON HAS REMARKABLE PROGRAM Proceeds of Recital Next Saturday Will Go to 1919’s Endowment Fund Edith Wynne Matthison will give a dra- matic recital in the gymnasium on Satur- day evening, April the 21st, at eight o’clock, for 1919’s Endowment Fund. Her program will be: A Carol of the Tenth Century..... Anonymous A CHIUGS Grave 8 6s 6s Pa we aS Herrick The Salutation... 22.3355 Thomas Traherne My: Garden 385 85 Thomas Edward Brown THE) TOYS veer he reve res Coventry Patmore THE: SKY LSE 6 es eee oe Ves le bal eeer Shelley Balcony Scene from “Romeo and Juliet’, Shakespeare Three Sonnets from the Portuguese Inclusions A Musical Instrument Meee eles 8 Mrs. Browning The West: Winds oi 2024 ci. 3... John Masefield Selections from “The Gardener” Rabindrahath Tagore Selections from ‘The Gitanjali’’ Rabindranath Tagore What the Bullet Sang ............ Bret Harte Selections from “The Servant in the House”, Charles Rann Kennedy The last is from a play written by her husband. Miss Matthison began her ca- reer in musical comedy, then worked on Greek plays. Later she starred in “The Piper”, and two years ago played Andro- mache in the “Trojan Women”, presented by Granville Barker at the stadium of the New York City College, at the University of Pennsylvania and various other places. Last year she was with Sir Herbert Beer- bohm Tree as Queen Catherine in “Henry VIII”. In the spring she took the part of Miranda in the masque, “Caliban’’. She has acted also for the movies in “The Governor’s Lady”. The reserved seats for Saturday night will be $1.50 for outsiders and $.75 for those connected with the college. Unre- served seats will be $1 for outsiders and $.50 for those connected with the college. Rica Stay at Studies Till June Advises President Lowell President Lowell of Harvard, ad- dressing a meeting of 700 law stu- dents, told them they would show the truest patriotism by staying at their studies till June. As it is, he said, many are rushing into preparedness work as if it were a football game. PREPAREDNESS COURSES NOW IN FULL SWING Work Arranged Over Vacation and Started Monday The preparedness classes planned by the Undergraduate Association commit- tee under the chairmanship of E. Hough- ton ’18, began Monday. Most of the courses proposed and accepted at the meeting of the Association the Tuesday before vacation are now in full swing. The course in farming is still under in- vestigation and will be given if possible. A course in typewriting is also being ar- ranged. The schedule of classes is: Accounting and Bookkeeping: Mr. Hurst—Room A, 8.00-9.00 a. m. every day. Emergency Aid: Miss Kingsbury— Room H, Mon., Wed., and Thurs., 7.45- 8.45 a. m, Business Methods: Mrs. Smith—Room C, Mon. and Wed., 7.45-8.45 a. m. Colloquial French: Dean Schenck and Miss Thayer—Room E, Tues. and Fri., 7.45-8.45 a. m. Motor Repairing: Spring Garden Street Institute, Philadelphia, Tues. and Wed., 8.30-5.00 p. m., and Sat., 10.00-12.00 a. m. Home Care of the Sick: Members will be notified as to time and place. Ninety students attended the first ses- sion of the three preparedness courses that met on Monday. Dr. Marion Parris Smith began her course, which will be divided into five different topics, by taking up accounting and explaining the debit and credit sys- tem. Dr. Kingsbury said that the prob- lems that would have to be met would be the result of military movements, indus- trial changes and disaster. She outlined the work and suggested trips to factories and charity administration offices to see the changes and the efforts to meet them. Mr. Hurst’s class also held its first meeting. C. A. ELECT M. BACON PRESIDENT FORMER TREASURER IN FIRST OFFICE M. Bacon ’18 was elected president of the Christian Association for the year 1917-18, at a meeting on April 3d. An en- thusiastic vote of thanks was given to N. McFaden, the retiring officer. M. Stair 18 was elected vice-president; BE. Biddle ’19, treasurer, and M. Hardy ’20, secretary. Miss Bacon has for the past year been treasurer of the Association and chairman of the Finance Committee, and was head of the Wednesday Evenings Committee before that. Miss Bacon instituted the change in the constitution, accomplished in 1915-16, by which the members of the board were to be elected from the differ- ent classes instead of being appointed by the president as formerly. Miss Stair has been chairman of the Membership Committee during the past year, and Miss Biddle was this year secretary of the As- sociation and Assistant Treasurer the second semester of last year. Miss Hardy was this year’s asistant treasurer. “PREPARE” IN OWN WORK Canteens and Day Nurseries Described Industrial Service Registered That each woman should train herself very intensively for the one line of war service for which she is best fitted, Miss Simpson, the organizer of college work of the National League for Women’s Service, emphasized in speaking Monday afternoon in Taylor on preparedness lines now open to college students. Mrs. Lewis Martin, chairman of the Bureau for Reg- istration and Information of the League, speaking after Miss Simpson, urged that all students who come from Pennsylvania should send in their names as ready for industrial service, since Pennsylvania will be the first State in which the women will be fully organized. “Pull up your petunias and roses and plant beans and potatoes”, said Miss Simpson, “for one thing almost everyone can do is to join in the crusade for agri- cultural conservation”. Women will be more efficient if they stick to the job at hand, Miss Simpson went on, whether it’s a farm or only a back yard, or a motor car. If a girl has the opportunity of keeping house this summer she can even be patriotic there by buying intelligently and economically. New Lines of Preparedness Suggested Social and welfare work were two kinds of service outlined by Miss Simpson, which come as new suggestions to most. Suppose a mobilization camp is pitched at the edge of one’s town, then with hun- dreds of men having nothing to do in their recreation hours, new social condi- tions arise, and women can be of the ut- most good in organizing “recreation groups”. The same plan applies, Miss Simpson said, to towns where munitions factories will be started, bringing with them hundreds of girl employees who will need the help of organization which col- lege students will know how to supply. Day Nurseries, relieving the soldiers’ wives of the care of their children and leaving them free to earn a living, will be a very valuable kind of war service. Canteen work is of two sorts, explained Miss Simpson, that for the troops and in- dustrial work for the factory hands. In towns where the great munitions plants are established women will be called on to provide “lunch counters” for the work- ers. Every kind of job at the “industrial front” may be obtained through the Bu- reau of Registration and Information in Philadelphia, Mrs. Martin explained. Al- ready more than 150 women have, from patriotic reasons, sought and secured work at the Arsenal, she said, where uniforms, bed clothes and all sorts of equipment for the troops is being manufactured. Any- one living in Pennsylvania was urged to send in her name and summer address to Mrs. John C. Groom, 1426 Walnut Street, to register for industrial service, which would range in variety from sitting in an office and registering other applicants to hunting out boarding houses for factory girls arriving for munitions factories and meeting the girls at the station. i | fi i f :