the garnet Volume IV Number 2 February, 1940 THROUGH THE U. S. MAILS WITH GUN AND CAMERA or Where is Frances? HERE are many points of view about addresses and people at them which vary with the position of the man with the point of view. And no man is complete without one. The man in the street who is holding a letter addressed to dear alumnus from Old Gulch college which he not only never attended but never even heard of, has a rather bitter one, born of many years of receiving Old Gulch mail for the man who rented his house one winter when he went to Florida, an action which he has every reason to regret. He throws it away in the basket provided for that purpose (keep your city streets clean) and wishes Old Gulch and its dear alumnus both a very unhappy future. T But no matter how bitter, the man in the street really cares about addresses, which is something we can't say about alumnus of type A for example, who, by some freak of nature and the U. S. Mails, gets his mail after it has had a long hard winter and a merry chase through all the subsidiary postoffices in the ten largest cities in the country. After carefully piecing it together, he may try to read it and will tell the folks in a conversational sort of way at dinner that night that it certainly is a riot that Old Gulch never seems to get the right address. Remember last year when we lived in Oskaloosing, Ohio? A ll the announce­ ments kept coming a month after everyone had forgotten what the celebration was about and were addressed to Paradise, Pa. where we stayed overnight the year before and somehow the news got around. And he files the letter away under miscellaneous and makes plans for moving suddenly in case the college might be suspecting his present address. The type B alumnus is living in a world all his own and doesn't get any notices be­ cause the man in the street (see above) keeps throwing them away at the address where this man lived twenty years ago. So he is hurt about the whole thing and says nobody ever tells him anything and he has devoted the best years of his life to that college and they can't even send him a football schedule and he certainly won't send his son to that place! Then there is type C sometimes known as the sweet young type— other times known as "oh them". They are the youngest and most energetic group who go away to forget after they leave college and play hare and hounds with the mailman for three or four years. Dur­ ing this time their mail piles up at home and is used each Christmas to start things going under the Yule log. Finally they get married and settle down and go over to mother's every so often to pick up the mail. The next step is that they start wondering why the college doesn't send them mail direct. But all these types are really brothers in the bond. None of them ever sends in a new address— They have the naive approach to the U. S. M ail and think that either a college sends mail to its alumni or it doesn't and there is no reason why it shouldn't. A ll they need to do is to drop a penny post card in the box and so why don't I get those athletic schedules. Of course, someone is bound to mention if I don't so I will, the alumnus who does send in his new address and keeps getting: (a) no mail at a ll; (b) mail still addressed to the old house; or, (c) two notices of everything, (just to make sure) one addressed to his old address and one to the new. This last category is made even more fun for collectors if there are some children in the fam ily who have gone to the old alma mater in which case you multiply the above figure by the number of children and the result is unbelievable but true. If that kind of thing happened at Swarthmore, which, of course, is unthinkable— but if it did— we would be bound to explain in a very technical and obscure way that when you take out an addressplate and don't get one in because something else happens to take your mind off it— or vice versa and there are two plates in and! none out— things happen and fate moves in strange ways. But we would say in a very earnest voice that we are trying to keep our minds on our work and that some day we hope you will get one letter at a time and that at the right address. Just now we are going to take a big breath and put out a new alumni register. And so this is an APPEAL. If you have friends or can influence people, ask them to send in their correct address if we do not haveit. We are not going to send out a return postal card to the whole alumni body because the addresses we want never get back to us that way. The card which we enclose with this issue of the Garnet Letter is meant for you to fill out for someone you know whose address you think the college has lost. We earnestly request your cooperation on this matter because we want the new register to be as accurate as possible. W e received over five hundred changes of address from the last m ailing of the Garnet Letter. The government is on our side. If Annie doesn't live here any more won't you drop us a card and tell us where she's moved? The Garnet Letter HAROLD SPEIGHT RESIGNS A S DEAN 3 OF THE COLLEGE Mr. Speight is particularly fitted for his new position not only because o f his background in college administra­ tive work, but also because o f his varied experience on many educational boards where his interest has not been limited to the academic but has evidenced itself in active leadership and participation. Since 1925 he has been a trustee o f the Bradford Junior College in Massachusetts. For the last three and a half years he has been the Chair­ man of the Friends Council on Education and has been a member o f the Executive Committee o f the College E n­ trance Examination Board for a much longer time. He is chairman o f a committee o f six representing the Guid­ ance and Personnel Associations for the study o f the or­ ganized personnel work in various kinds o f institutions throughout the country. In all o f these tenures, he has become familiar with conditions, .results, and needs o f the educational system in various parts o f the country. This knowledge can not help but be an invaluable asset in his new work. Dean Speight’s resignation terminates six and one-half On Tuesday, February 6, the Board o f Managers ac­ cepted with regret the resignation o f Dean Harold E. B. Speight. Mr. Speight resigned as Dean o f the College to assume the duties o f executive secretary and coordinator of the New Y ork State project for the improvement o f teacher preparation and in-service training which is being undertaken by the Association o f Colleges and Univer­ sities in that State. H e was named to his position by the Association and will take up the work on March T. A t the outset his headquarters will be at Ithaca, but the loca­ tion of a permanent office has not been decided. This project is being handled through a special Com­ mittee o f which President Edmund E. Day, o f Cornell University, is chairman. It has been inspired partly by the recent Regents’ Inquiry and partly by new legislation requiring, from 1942 on, an additional year o f prepara­ tion for teachers. The institutions, public and private, o f the, State are attacking the problem cooperatively and are working in close cooperation with the nation-wide pro­ gram o f the Commission on Teacher Education o f the American Council on Education. About thirty institutions and school systems in.various parts o f the country have been chosen as centers o f special projects, but the New York program will be autonomous and under the control of the Association o f Colleges and Universities o f that state. years o f service at Swarthmore College. Arriving here in the fall o f 1933 from Dartmouth, he filled the office o f Dean o f Men until February 1, 1939 when, on his return from a leave o f absence, his appointment as Dean o f the College became effective. President Aydelotte has issued the following statement regarding Dean Speight’s resignation: The many friends o f Dean Speight in Swarthmore and in the Society o f Friends learn o f his resignation with regret and hope that his leaving will not mean that he will lose connection with the College and with Quakerism. The work which he has undertaken for the Association o f Col­ leges and Universities o f the State o f New Y ork is o f great interest and o f nation-wide importance. It will offer full scope for Dean Speight’ s varied abilities and broad experience, and the results should have an influence upon our whole secondary school system. A college is a train­ ing ground not merely for students but also for the faculty and even for deans and presidents. Our heartiest good wishes will follow Dean Speight as he joins the group o f men and women who have gone out from Swarthmore to important tasks which experience here has better fitted them to perform .” The Garnet Letter 4 MR. AYDELOTTE'S SUCCESSOR AS YET UNNAMED Howard Cooper Johnson Issues Statement on Behalf of Selection Committee U pon the resignation of Frank Aydelotte as President o f Swarthmore, the Board o f Manageis appointed a Com­ mittee o f five to select a new President and invited the Faculty to appoint three representatives to sit in with the Board Committee. Subsequently the Alumni Association also appointed a representative. The personnel o f the Com­ mittee is as follows : Representing the Board, H etty Lippincott Miller, J. Archer Turner, Ruth P. Ashton, Claude C. Smith, H ow ­ ard Cooper Johnson, Charles F. Jenkins, ex-officio. R ep­ resenting the Faculty, Scott B. Lilly, Edith Philips, Clair W ilcox. Representing the Alumni Association, Allin H . Pierce. U pon organization H oward Cooper Johnson was ap­ pointed Chairman and Claude C. Smith Secretary o f the Committee. Three meetings have been held— on N ov. 20, 1939, December 5th, 1939 and Jan. 8th, 1940. Although the Committee has adopted no minute, it is the general feeling o f the members o f the Committee that the President o f Swarthmore should combine high schol­ astic attainments, sound administrative capacity and a full belief in the American constitutional system o f pri­ vate enterprise. Some o f the Committee feel that there is now a need in our Colleges for leaders capable of inspir­ ing students to attain not only high scholarship but a greater interest in Christian faith. The remarkable abil­ ities o f Mrs. Aydelotte have proven that the w ife of the President makes or mars his administration and, therefore, a candidate whose w ife fails to live up to this standard is not likely to be appointed. Our Committee appears to be united in the hope that we can find a man in the general neighborhood o f forty, so he might have a long administrative term at Swarth­ more. W e also want to avoid one who might use Swarth­ more as a stepping stone for the presidency o f some U ni­ versity. W e have had submitted to us the names o f seventynine persons and the Chairman has recently written to the presidents o f fifteen leading Universities, Colleges and educational foundations for suggestions. These men are familiar with Swarthmore and know our need. Several have already made valued suggestions. Some o f the members on the Committee have been sur­ prised that the Alumni have apparently shown so little interest in the selection o f a new president. W e have re­ ceived only five letters since the appointment of the Com­ mittee, three o f which were concerned with one midwest candidate. V ery few verbal suggestions have been made. N o single problem in the recent history of Swarthmore is harder to solve, or one in which the Alumni generally have a greater stake. Even if they do not have in mind some definite person, each Alumnus believes that certain principles should guide the Committee in the selection, and the Committee would appreciate the benefit o f this Alumni opinion. It is often difficult to obtain real disinterested opinions concerning those whose names are presented and the ob­ taining o f factual information requires considerable time. The Committee, therefore, will not be hurried in making the appointment. \LUMNI COUNCILS VOTE RESOLUTIONS COMMENDING MR. AYDELOTTE The Joint Councils o f the Alumni Association of Swarthmore College, having been formally advised o f the resignation o f Frank Aydelotte as President o f Swarth­ more College and o f his appointment as Director o f the Institute o f Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, have unanimously adopted the following M in u te: Frank Aydelotte for the past eighteen years has served they have learned to love him. Swarthmore College looks to the future with increased confidence for having known him. IT IS N O W R E SO L V E D , That the Members o f the Alumni Association o f Swarthmore College do hereby ex­ press their profound regret at his resignation, record their high appreciation o f his conspicuous, faithful and devoted service to the College and extend to him their sincere best Swarthmore College as its President, faithfully and with wishes for success in his new undertaking. distinction. H is character, learning and industry, his prac­ and the alumni. Through his w ord and pen they have F U R T H E R RESO LVED , That the Secretary be re­ quested to inscribe these resolutions upon the permanent records o f the Alumni Association] and that the Presi dent o f the Association be requested to transmit a copy of found renewed inspiration. Through his genial friendship the resolutions to Frank Aydelotte. tical vision and his courageous leadership have won for him the respect and admiration o f the faculty, the students The Garnet Letter 5 OBSERVATIONS FROM THE MARTIN BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY by Laurence Irving, Director U R E N V IR O N M E N T is largely occupied by man and other animals and by plants. Many lifeless ma­ terials are around us, but most o f them are, like buildings, coal, soil and even the air, present in the position and con­ dition in which animals and plants have left them. It is in the province o f biology to consider all aspects o f animals and plants and it is the objective o f biologists to organize and extend knowledge o f living things and o f life. I f the subject of study is to be worth serious attention it is essen­ tial that it should be intellectually interesting, and that it should be useful follows inevitably from the amount o f intellectual interest which it evokes and in proportion to the correctness and penetration which it provides for in­ sight into the environment. O The teaching in the Martin Laboratory proceeds along fairly conservative lines, but it is activated by the various biological investigations which are in progress. Each member o f the staff is keenly following his own interest­ ing research, but I can only fairly describe my own as an example of what we are doing and then remark upon the effect o f some o f our common activities. I have been interested in the study o f how diving ani­ mals like seals, beaver and whales can remain so long with­ out breathing. Beaver can dive for fifteen minutes, seals for a half hour, and some whales for perhaps two hours. These animals have lungs, heart and blood, an entire res­ piratory apparatus and metabolism like ours, and yet we are hard put to it to dive for a minute or two. The divers seem to manage during a dive by restricting the blood flow through their muscles and by maintaining only the circulation through the brain, in that way preserving the store o f oxygen for that most sensitive and essential or­ gan. Oslo, Norway, and has prepared spirometers applicable to measuring air expired by a small whale or porpoise. Dr. Scholander has already perform ed many ingenious and bold experiments on seals in Norway, and his experi­ ence and resourcefulness prepare us reasonably fo r the ambitious program of examining the respiration o f por- * poises and whales. Dr. S. W . Grinnell, a graduate o f Stanford in physical chemistry, is preparing an electrical resistance wire method for measurement o f blood flow. His assistance and much equipment are provided by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. During the Christmas holidays an expedition compris­ ing five members o f the staff and seven students travelled to Hatteras, N. C. and captured two porpoises for study, returning them to Swarthmore where they were kept in the swimming pool at the prep school buildings. This e f­ fort was attended with difficulties nearly commensurate with the magnitude o f its objective, for porpoises are whales. The investigation has made good progress, and we hope that we are approaching a clarification o f the mode o f respiration o f the most mysterious o f all living animals, the whale. It is strange that whales which are so familiar and so interesting to man should still remain in all o f their activities so little known. Other investigations, which Mr. Black has carried on, are examining the variations in the blood o f different spe­ cies o f fish which are related to their respiration. The catfish and trout and salmon seem to represent the extreme range o f divergence in properties of blood. The properties ( Continued on Page 8) / Having observed adjustments o f this sort in the beaver, it was then possible to see that cats, dogs and men make in a similar manner, although less perfectly, an adjust­ ment to arrested breathing by preserving the blood flow through the brain. Although operating less perfectly, the self-preservation o f land animals from asphyxia during an accidental obstruction to breathing is clearly an impor­ tant matter in life. F or each o f us must prize a physiolo­ gical device which secures existence in the presence of the narrow respiratory reserve which we possess. The technical procedure applied to studying the details of adjustment o f breathing requires measurements o f blood flow, action o f the heart, and breathing. For these studies we have assembled and constructed a number o f instruments. Dr. P. F. Scholander has come as a fellow o f the Rockefeller Foundation from the University o f LAURENCE IRVING 6 The Garnet Letter WILLIAM ISAAC HULL by Ethel H. Brew ster,307 O R T Y -S E V E N years at Swarthmore College— that is the record o f W illiam I. Hull, outstripping in time the thirty-six years o f W iliam Hyde Appleton, the thirtyseven o f Susan J. Cunningham and Jesse H. Holmes (who, though Emeritus, is still a dynam o). H ow blessed the College has been in these long term servitors, who with ever growing minds and steady activity have bridged administrations, maintained worthy traditions, stabilized lean years, filled emergencies in their stride, and though adapting their course to the shifting breeze, have never lost direction. W hat such men and women mean in the hearts o f numberless foster-sons and daughters the world over is evidenced by the universal affection for “ Mr. Chips” on page or screen-^pTrue, “ Mr. Chips” rouses a special nostalgia for the passing o f an entire educational system, but it is chiefly the man’s courageous, faithful, devoted spirit that speaks to the soul. F So with Dr. Hull— H e left us very suddenly, but we ^ are grateful that he tarried to celebrate with us the v seventy-fifth anniversary o f the signing o f the College charter. W ithout him there would have been no one to . record adequately those years o f labor and hopeful vision prior to the opening o f the College* which his researches had recovered. W ith him to link the generations, the eve­ ning o f Friday, November 10th, which was dedicated to historical surveys, proved a great success. H e was at his best in word and spirit and set the tone for the evening. The next morning, before a large assemblage o f alumni and friends gathered on Founders’ Day to hear the ad­ dress o f Lord Lothian, he opened the meeting with a beau­ tiful reading from The Scriptures. On Sunday he was cordial host to many friends. On Monday, he went to a Philadelphia hospital for periodic observation (he has not been in the best o f health in recent years), and slipped away in the night— -away from man-made strife which he had always deprecated, to, we may be confident, the ideal Peace toward which he had always aimed. It is gratifying that his last hours should have centered so happily upon Founders’ Day, an institution in which he particularly de­ lighted, and upon a special historical anniversary o f the College to which he had devoted his life. Dr. Hull came to Swarthmore in 1892 to be Associate Professor o f H istory and Political Science. A native son o f Baltimore, where he was born November 19th, 1868, he had taken an A .B . degree in 1889, and the Ph.D. de­ gree in 1892 at Johns Hopkins University, which had been established shortly after Swarthmore College, and was pioneering in the field o f higher education. H e was, therefore, one o f the promising young men inspired by President Gilman and the brilliant Faculty who were em­ phasizing advanced instruction and research. A m ong his older contemporaries at Johns Hopkins was Abraham Flexner, friend and patron o f Swarthmore College, though he has lured President Aydelotte to the Institute o f Advanced Study o f which he was one o f the founders. The youngest member o f the Faculty when he began to teach at Swarthmore, Dr. Hull served his apprenticeship under Presidents de Garmo and Birdsall, and grew with the institution through the regimes o f President Swain and President Aydelotte. His changing titles indicate his expanding interests and powers. A fter two years, he was appointed Joseph W harton Professor o f History and Poli­ tical Economy. Instantly there was offered in the curri­ culum a new course on Social Problems of To-day ; by 1902, it included, as described in the catalogue, a study o f “ Crime and Punishment; the Insane and Feeble-M ind­ ed; Paupers and Charity; Tenement H ouses; W om en and the Fam ily; Children o f the P o o r ; Social Settlements; Intemperance and Methods of Temperance R e fo rm ; the Salvation A rm y’s Social W o r k ; the N egro; the Indian” . The problems involved continued to concern Dr. Hull, but he more and more grounded them in Yesterday and antici­ ) pated Tom orrow . w tb Concentrating for a period on the march o f history, j when a dual department was divided, he became in 1904 . Isaac H. Clothier Professor o f H isto ry ; then, as his horizons widened— for his studies andresearches took him to Berlin, Leyden, Paris, and ultimately around the world— j in 1911 he was named Professor o f H istory and Inter- h( oi n< Pi oi tb national Relations. 11( ■j pjnc Horizons for his students broadened, t o o : he was never dogmatic nor did he permit them to b e; he had them wrestle with a myriad o f “ Disputed Questions” , and trained them in methods o f arbitration. In the heyday o f •; his teaching, he had a habit o f pacing up and down the i room, with his arms locked behind his back— symbolic, J perhaps, o f facing both sides squarely, or as A lice might explain to the Mad Hatter, emphasizing the need o f re- J tracing one’s steps in order to keep up with events— thus j he strode through all history, restrained and majestic, but j with an occasional flip to. the tails o f his Prince Albert (when in mode) as a challenge to the hindermost. St-udents found exemplified in him integrity,reasoned justice, j sympathetic understanding— a scholar whose interest was 1 humanity. j sj-: ce ni W( pa ilc qe va ar] w] l( “ j. in The Garnet Letter Needless to say, with the coming o f President Aydelotte, Dr. Hull immediate­ ly recognized t h e educational advan­ tages o f the system of Reading for H on­ ors as outlined in the President’s inaugu­ ral address; he was one o f the first to re­ quest its adoption in 1922, and contribut­ ed to its development in the experimental years. From 1923 to 1928 he served as Secretary o f t h e Faculty, applying a discerning mind and felicitous phrasing to Faculty Minutes. In 1929, at an age when many individ­ uals prefer to rest upon their laurels and contemplate retirement, he accepted the challenge offered with the Howard M. Jenkins Professorship o f Quaker History and Research, and entered upon a most productive decade. Throughout all the period o f his teaching, Dr. Hull was engaged in outside activities: social education, Peace, the Society o f Friends were his great concern. In 1898 he had married Hannah Hallowell Clothier, o f the class of 1891, whose family figures large in Swarthmore an­ nals : two daughters, Mary Clothier M cN eil and Elizabeth Powell Roberts, have now married and established homes of their own. Together Hannah and W ill Hull dedicated their lives to the great cause o f Peace, their allegiance never swerving when the cause has been the most un­ popular. Dr. Hull was convinced as quoted in a Phoenix interview for October 21, 1930, that armaments “ con­ stitute the inevitable and insuperable obstacle to the suc­ cessful settlement of disputes among nations by peaceful means” , and to those who maintained that such means were impracticable, he would retort: Study the history of pacific settlements and you will be amazed to discover how, often they have been successful. Thus the Hulls demonstrated the Quaker way, spreading the doctrine pri­ vately and publicly when they journeyed, testing the soft answer that turneth away wrath in their daily rounds, or when summering in “ The Brier Patch” at Jamestown, Long Island, where as Dr. Hull wrote to a friend, they “ lived serenely among the bees, berries, birds, breezes, briars, butterflies, and bunnies, with pheasants and deer in the offing” 4 7 W hen one considers the achievement in outside activi­ ties, one wonders that there was time for other work. And all was accomplished with such quietude and self-efface­ ment that few were conscious o f the variety and extent o f his enterprises. Dr. Hull was an active member o f thè Phi Beta Kappa Society (President o f the local chapter, 1921-1924), o f the American Historical Association, o f the Historical Society o f Pennsylvania, o f the American Society o f International Law, and was a Fellow o f the Royal Historical Society o f London. H e attended the Hague Conference o f 1907, the Naval Conference at Washington in 1922, the Disarmament Conference at Geneva in 1932. For a number o f years he was chairman o f the Pennsylvania Committee for Total Disarmament. In recent years, he has been deeply interested in the work of the American Friends Service Committee; he played a prominent part in the Friends’ W orld Conference at Swarthmore in 1937; at the time o f his death, he was president o f the Friends’ Social Union, and was a Trustee o f the Church Peace Union. H e w