VOL. XLIV, NO. 24 ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA., WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1950 Copyright, Trustees of Bryn Mawr College, 1950 PRICE 15 CENTS Penn Physicist Proposes Basis Of Bird Flights Science Club Sponsors ‘Henry Yeagley’s Lecture “Now let’s just ease into this gradually.” Dr. Henry Yeagley, astro-physicist and Associate Pro- fessor of Physics at Pennsylvania State College, is a slender, genial man who likes to gesture broadly, particularly when he is discussing his avocation, A Proposed Physi- cal Basis of Bird Navigation. His talk, sponsored by the Science Club was given last Thursday eve- ning in the Biology Lecture Room. in Dalton. “You may think I’m going a long way ’round”, he said, “but you will see the relation of what I say to bird nagivation.” “I grew up'in York, Pennsylva- nia. My father was a horse and buggy doctor, and I used to take - it, the horse, to the blacksmith’s to be shod. I got my early educa- tion hanging around the black- smith shop, but’, here he paused and regarded his audience thought- fully for a moment, “I won’t go “A few. yards away from th “shop was a pigeon coop in which child I used to wonder how those a man. kept homing pigeons. As a fuzzy-wuzzy things, that work their way out of their shells with such difficulty, can in four weeks be on the wing, and in three months can compete in hundred mile races. On those evenings I used to sit and watch the bats wheeling around the street lamps. Flying at high speed they would approach some obstacle—a branch or a telephone wire, and then sud- Continued on Page 3 Dr. Martin Foss To Give Address At Bacealaureate Dr. Martin Foss of the Haver- ford College philosophy depart- ment has been chosen by the class of 1950 as speaker at the Bacca- laureate Service on Sunday eve- ning, June fourth. Dr. Foss grew up and began his work in Berlin when it was still the artistic and scientific center of Europe, but he left at the time of Hitler’s rise to power. He went to Paris where he lectured and carried on secret lia- son work with the German capital. Later he was persuaded by his wife to leave France and come to New York. Continued on Page 4 B.M. Innovates Contest in Skills Of Horsemanship The first Bryn Mawr College Horse Show was held on Tuesday, May 16 at Mr. Fox’s Stables in Valley Forge: The show consisted of three classes in straight horse- manship, and one jumping class. The results were as follows: Be- ginners, Louise Dengler, Beverly Singer, Norma Bachrach, Zita Levine; Intermediates, Diana, Poole,} | Sheila Atkinson, Bertie Dawes; Advanced, Bess Foulke, Gretchen Wemmer, Chris MacVeagh, Eula Harmon; Jumping, Gretchen Wem- mer, Chris MacVeagh, Eula Har- mon, Rosemary Spicer. This first of Bryn Mawr’s horse shows was a great success, and one which the Athletic Association hopes to re- peat in years to come. The News takes great pleas- ure in announcing the election of Frances Shirley as co-make- up editor. Bones on Roof Alert Wyndham For Hunt of Bristling Raccoon Specially contributed by Karen Cassard, ’50 As ‘my roommate and I were preparing, a couple of weeks ago, to go out and sun ourselves on the porch roof, which is just outside our room, we noticed, to our hor- ror, several very large and very smelly bones lying about. Being as how I am so frightfully civic minded (my wanting to sunbathe had nothing at all to do. with it, of course), I volunteered to remove them, with the invaluable aid of The Philadelphia Inquirer. That ‘helped a bit but not much, and we were forced to move several feet away. Stark tragedy had reared its ugly head. The great mystery was how the bones ever got on the roof in the first place. They were much too big to have been brought there by a cat or a squirrel, the only ani- mals anyone had ever seen around here, and although we fully realize that the percentage of eccentric people in this locality is unusually ‘ high, we really didn’t think there were any—even amung the profes- sors—who were eccentric enough to want to throw great, half- gnawed bones onto our roof. We were, for the first time since the hygiene exam, stumped, so we did what we had done then, and for- got about it, repeating, to our- selves the unofficial Bryn Mawr motto: “Ignorance is bliss.” But more and more bones kept, appearing, and at last we decided that we really must do something, so my roommate and I went to the: Business Office and told our gory’: tale. Everyone was most sym- pathetic,,and we were at last ad- vised to listen carefully that night; for any suspicious noises, and then, if we heard any, to rush boldly out witi a flashlight and see what it was. This was all very well, except that my roommate was going out and leaving me all alone. Never- theless, I resolved to be brave, and after opening the three windows with screens in them, I sat down and waited. But the minutes pass- ed away and became hours, and still no noises. I began to lose hope, when suddenly there reach- ed my ears the unmistakable sounds of light quick steps on the roof! I rushed for the flashlight, and approached the window in dread, fully expecting to see un- told horrors. If you have ever tried looking through a screen at night with a very feeble flashlight, you know how much you can see: the screen. Continued on vage 4 Resolutions,Rights Discussed by NSA At BM Conference The delegates to the NSA sub- regional conference held at Bryn Mawr on April 29 passed several resolutions during the course of the afternoon’s heated discussions on Student Rights and Responsi- bilities. Later the regional officers of NSA reconsidered the resolu- tions, and decided that they had been passed by a group not wholly representative ef NSA, even though these resolutions were of a committal nature. Recently, in a letter to the col- lege committee, Elmer Brock, Pres- ident of the Pennsylvania Regional United States National Students’ Association, said that the resolu- tions were “not to be considered as either NSA policy or NSA pro- nouncements.” That they had been passed at all was in violation. of the regional constitution, for fifty delegates represented not NSA exclusively, but YPA, the Academic Freedom Union, Young Republi- cans, and even non-existent organ- izations. The motions dealt with the civil rights case of students of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsyl- vania, as well as with various cam- pus political organizations. The conference acted without a peti- _,Continued_on Page 2 Bryn Mawr Wins In Softball Game The softball game played be- tween Bryn Mawr and Chestnut Hill on Tuesday, May 16 closed with a score of 6-5 in Bryn Mawr’s favor. The game was stretched to nine innings, because Chestnut Hill tied Bryn Mawr in the seventh inning. Our players were: Catcher, Jackson; Pitcher, Cohen; First Base, Klin; Second Base, Jo Ras- kin; Third Base, Tilman; Short- stop, Hayes; Shortfield, Voorhis; Rightfield, Cross; Centerfield, Janet Leeds; Leftfield, Ellen Wells. The class of 1951 takes great pleasure in announcing the election of Annie-Lawrie Fab- ens as editor and Marilie Wal- lace as business manager of next year’s yearbook. CALENDAR ‘Friday, May 19 Last Day of Lectures. Class Day, Library, Taylor, Deanery, Dalton, 1:00 p.m. Monday, May 22-Friday, June 2 Examination Period. Sunday, June 4 Memorial Service for Serena Hand Savage, ’22, President of the Alumnae Association of Bryn Mawr College, 1948 to February 24, 1950, Library Cloisters, 4:00 p.m. Baccalaureate Service, Dr. Martin Foss, Lecturer in Philos- ophy, Haverford College, Good- hart, 8:30 p.m. Monday, June 5 Senior Garden Party, admis- sion by invitation only, Wynd- ham Garden, 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 6 Commencement Exercises, Dr. Millicent Carey McIntosh, Dean of Barnard College, admission by. invitation only, Goodhart, 11:00 a.m. Roosevelt, Sforza, Taft, Shaw Send Advisory Letters to IRC Specially contributed by Eva Glassberg, ’52 Since so many students are going abroad this summer, the Inter-| national Relations Club thought it would be a good idea to ask for ad- vice on what we, American stud- ents, can do te stimulate efforts towards a peaceful world. There- fore, the IRC wrote letters to fif- teen people, asking for such advice. Unfortunately, all the responses Mrs. R. MeIntosh To Give Address To Class of 1950 Mrs. Millicent Carey McIntosh, who received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in 1920, will give the commencement address, the subject of which is not now known. Mrs. McIntosh was born in Balti- more, Maryland in 1898. After completing her studies at Bryn Mawr, she went to Johns Hopkins University where she received her Ph.D. in 1926. In 1940 she received her LLD from Smith College. Mrs. McIntosh is one of the few people, who have successfully man- aged both an academic and a domestic career. She is married to Dr. Rustin McIntosh, and the mother of five children, and at the same time has held many high positions. From 1922 to 1923 she taught at Rosemary Hall, and then, from 1926 to 1929, was an instruc- tor in English here at Bryn Mawr. From 1929 to 1930, she was an As- sistant in English and Acting Dean here. Headmistress of the Brear- ley School in New York from 1930 to 1947, she then became Dean of Barnard College, Columbia Uni- versity, and still holds this posi- tion. Mrs. McIntosh is the niece of former President M. Carey Thomas. ‘have not yet come through, and | we are able to publish only four letters. We have not yet heard from Nehru, Pope Pius, Trygve Lie, Al- bert Einstein, Robert Schuman, Franco, or Marshall Tito. Both Winston Churchill and Clement At- lee wrote that they received too many such requests and had made it a policy to answer none; Senator Vandenberg was unable to ans- wer because of his illness; and President. Truman sent us several speeches pertaining to internation- al relations, none of which, how- ever, contained a direct answer ‘to the question we had asked. How- ever, we did receive the following answers: From Eleanor Roosevelt: The most important thing that American students can do is to learn what their own democracy means and live it in whatever cir- cumstances they find themselves. At the present time there is a struggle going on in the world for the minds of men and if democracy is to win against communism it must be because democracy proves that it is a growing, living faith, demonstrating its faith through action. This can be done by stud- ents in schools,-in their homes and wherever they travel. It requires a crusading spirit and a determina- tion to fight for peace throughout our daily lives as we fought to win the war. From Count Carlo Sforza: The idea of a European unity, which until recently was consider- ed by many people as a Utopia, is now gaining ground as the actual reality of a not too distant future. But just as Rome was not built in a day, we can likewise assume that a goal so far-reaching as this one will not be achieved in one breath. What is — after all — even a per iod of ten years, when history is being made? It was only under Dictatorship that we have wit- nesses -(sic.) improvised pseudo- Continued on Page 2 Descartes’ Anniversary Marked By Exhibit in Rare Book Room In conjunction with the tercen- tenary celebration of Descartes’ death, the Rare Book Room has on exhibit many first editions and related volumes on Rene Descartes ‘!from the collection of Professor Paul Schrecker. Of the portraits of the French philosopher and mathematician, one was engraved “dans le gout du |erayon” by Saverien 1763, another shows him as a young man; the original is in the Museum of Toul- ouse. One picture, of which this is the only copy recorded, shows Des- cartes at his writing desk, quill in hand, two globes on the floor beside him, a skeleton on the wali, geometric instruments scattered on the desk, and the sun streaming through the window. Included in the display are cop- ies of Les Principes de la Philoso- phie, Paris, 1659, opened to the illustration of the vortices, and the catalog of the Descartes ex- hibition arranged by the Biblio- theque Nationale of Paris to cele- brate the tercentenary of the Dis- cours de la Methode, in 1987. Pasted on the frontispiece to the catalog is a postage stamp with the portrait of Deseartes after Franz Hals, issued by the French government on the same occasion. The stamp, however, was soon withdrawn because. of the scandal- ous misprint: (Discours sur in- stead of de la Methode). A first edition of the Lettres de M. Descartes in three volumes his portrait after life drawn and engraved by his friend, the math- ematician van Schoten, the Latin translation of “Passiones Animae” which appeared simultaneously with the French original in the year of Descartes’ death comprise much of the rest of the display. In the corner glass cupboard works of Descartes’ ‘contempor- aries and followers may be seen. Here is the first edition of Leib- niz’ early writings, and also the first of his many articles on Des- cartes. One can see a copy of Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes, a satire on the snobbish Cartes- ianism of bourgeois women pub- lished in 1672. The works of Louis de la Forge, and Arnold Geulincx of Pierre Daniel Huet, Bishop of Soissons, of Johann Clauberg, the first German Cartesian, may also be examined. Last, in the same case are the Opera Postumae of Spinoza, and a great copy, in T. Taylor’s Eng- lish translation of Malebranche’s Search After Truth. ‘Cogito ergo sum?’