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_ THE COLLEGE NEWS





Dean Gives Advice —

On Organizing Work

Trends Emphasized
In Studying Rather Than
~ Small Details

QUIZZES ARE NECESSARY



“Keep your heads clear and take

your time when it comes to taking an
examination,” said Mrs. Manning,
speaking in Chapel on November 1.
_An almost unbelievable number of stu-
dents who have failed an examination
give the excuse that, because they
stayed up all night studying, ‘they
could not read nor even see the exami-
nation paper in the morning. Most
of the poor papers that are writ-
ten are poor in every part.. They con-
sist merely of scattered facts thrown
upon the paper and not thought out in
advance. As on the entrance examina-
tions, if a student has chosen the
most difficult questions to cope with,
and has understood what she is talk-
ing about, she is given credit for her
efforts even if her mark is low. It
is better to show that one understands
one-half or one-third of one’s subject
than to discuss the whole field vague-
ly and at random.

Consequently, the college student
must learn how to organize her’ stud-
ies. College work differs in speed or
tempo from that of the lower grades
in school. The object of most good
schools, in the lower grades at least,
is to give technique, or a firm grasp
on certain general principles. If a
child has not learned how to write or
spell, all sorts of unpleasant surprises
await him in his future scholastic
work. In college, however, as in fu-
ture life, one must “get things togeth-
er for one’s self.”

The difficulty most students have in
reading and in getting over the ground
prescribed in their subjects, is not that
they do not finish, but that they never
even begin. They are so discouraged
after one look at their assignments
that they do not try to cope with what

they can do. “Do what you can,” said |

Mrs. Manning, “in the best way for
you, and don’t worry about the rest.”
The faculty do not usually expect that
the work they give out shall be done
in detail. Most of the students go
over their work too slowly. They
must learn to hasten over some para-
graphs, asking themselves what the
general trend or gist is. They must
study with the thought of organiza-
tion, of learning general facts and
concrete examples to illustrate them,
but not with the thought that they
must cover every page in detail. if
the student cannot get through her
work in the time she has set for her-
self, she must stop at the end of the
time and let the rest of the work go.



New Instructor, Building,
Equipment, Funds Desired



Continued from Page One

At the same time, Miss Gwinn (now
Mrs. Hodder) set up in the students’
parlor of Merion the Braun photo-
graphs illustrating Peter’s Renais-
gance as she came to it each year
when teaching her Major English
course. . The work went on under a
single instructor who was always an
archaeologist and frequently _indif-

.. ferent to the Renaissance. When Miss

King came back in the English de-
partment, she was allowed to give, al-
ternately: Renaissance Painting and
Gothic Architecture.

When Mr. Carpenter became a
member of the faculty, the department
was divided, giving him plenty of room
for antiquity, and giving Miss King

- a chance at the Middle Ages, the Ren-

aissance, and all art since then. As

__ the work grew, the Demonstrator be-| scribes matters not at all: The Novel

gan taking classes to meet the stu-

en amen
After there had been an excursus on

_ Oriental art in the middlé of Sienese'|
_ painting, the College found George
\ Rowley at Princeton, who undertook
to teach Art of the Far East the fol-
) lowing autumn. This was in the teeth

3 protest and laughter at Princeton
wa made that Oriental Art could not
m has never stopped teaching it.

the Department very nearly had|}

rygowski as one of its members, but
seemed so near the retiring age

Harvard, where the declaration |
ght to undergraduates. Bryn||

he decided to send instead his|i!



| Book Review



Lust For Life is a rare book in
ithe sense that it actually, is all that
it-pretends tobe. That alone is coni-
mendable, and peculiarly. satisfying to
the reader who resents any superior-
ity complex about art and literature
that he thinks he detects in the au-
;thor. Irving Stone subtitles his book
iThe Novel of Vincent Van Gogh; he
states that he based the book on the
available information concerning Van
Gogh’s life, fitting in suitable dialogue
and filling thé. Ae a ae
dents that might well have been part
of Van Gogh’s life.

Lust For Life is a first-rate novel:
the characters are interesting and
well-developed, the plot is clever, al-
most gripping (Van Gogh led an in-
teresting life) ; the style is not distin-
guished in the sense either that it is
highly literary or that it is highly per-
sonal, The book is an objective analy-
sis of the period of mental growth and

|



Mrs. Dean Appraises

Dictatorship Policies



Continued from Page One

Three principal _questions..may--be
raised in developing the comparison
between Fascist and Communist sys-
tems, Have these dictatorships proved
more successful than democracies in
providing their peoples with good gov-
ernment? Have they succeeded in solv-
ing the economic problems of the mod-
ern age? And in accomplishing their
ends, have they provided the individ-
ual with a fuller opportunity for spir-
itual development?

The manifestations of Fascism and:

Communism are determined by the
history, political traditions. and eco-
nomic conditions of the countries in
which they hold sway. Communism
enjoys one distinct advantage over
Fascism: in a country whose reser-
voirs of natural: resources have as
yet been barely explored, the govern-
ment may safely promise material



artistic apprenticeship of Vincent Van |
Gogh. Compared, for example, with |
Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a|
Young Mam, a novel without direct |
biographical basis, it seems primarily |
fictional in content, in treatment ex- |
traordinarily impersonal,

Vincent Van Gogh seems on casual
reading to be what is usually called “a
well-rounded, three-dimensional char-
acter”’—-the “‘red-blooded he-man” of
literary jargon. In his emotional de-
velopment we have his tender feeling
for his brother, Theo, a more gentle,
sympathetic and orderly Van Gogh,
his difficulties with his family, his first
absorbing love and his keen feeling of
disappointment and sense of ineffect-
uality on his ill-suecess in love. Mean-
while, Van Gogh’s mind is also in a
state of transition: he is young
‘enough and idealistic enough to aban-
don the sordid business of selding pic-
tures to wealthy people, for the God-
given task of ministering to the poor
and the oppressed in one of the worst
mining districts in France. He short-
ly finds that his ministry is fruitless
/and loses his belief in God altogether.
| With this loss of all conventional
religious feeling, begins his appren-
ticeship to art. His striving to obtain ;
a medium for expression and his diffi-
culties in getting the right line, the
right materials and the right colors,
occupy the central and most nbeorbing:
part of Lust For Life. Even for the}
layman in art, the climax of the book |
lies in the analysis of Van Gogh in|
his maturity, working out his tech-
nique in Arles. The fiery Arlesian!
sun and the demoniac mistral seem|
together to have given Van Gogh a
crucible in which to fuse the emo-
tional and mental and physical com- |
| ponents of his art. His mental agony |
|and its expression in his violent physi- |
'eal self-torture, and the emotional
pitch of his Maya vision are throw-
backs from the high fever of artistic
| composition.
| This point marks, perhaps, the
‘height of the novel, the height of the;
|life that is the biographical basis of
'Lust For Life. It marks, too, the be-|
ginning of a more scientific mode of |







benefits to the population; but the
Fascists must carefully husband the
limited resources of a relatively poor
country, and can look to no great im-
provement in Italy’s economic situa-
tion, unless they succeed in obtaining
additional territory. Therefore, Com-
munism is essentially dynamic, and
can speak boldly in the future tense,
with the boastfulness and aggressive-
ness of boisterous youth. Fascism is
also dynamic in quality, but the
Fascists can promise no millenium;
at best they can merely order their
resources so as to assure more equal
distribution among the various classes
of the population.

When the Bolshevists came into
power in Russia, Lenin was too acute
a student of Russian conditions to be-
lieve that Marxist principles, devised
for al highly industrialized economy,
could be applied in their original form
to a country primarily agrarian, He
realized that a community of interests
had to be created between individualist
peasants clamoring for private owner-

‘Ship of land and organized workers

“who had nothing to lose but their
chains,”
government to conciliate the peasants
and win their collaboration in the task
of building an industrialized socialist
state has occasioned many of its diffi-
culties since 1927.

Fascism represented a reaction on
the part of the young generation ‘of
1922 against the defeatism of the So-
cialists, the impotence of Italy’s post-
war parliament, and the results of
the World War. It satisfied the de-

means.
The failure of the Soviet:

classes, but espouses the interests of
one or more groups against thé others,
In Russia it has, beéme a dictatorship
of the proletariat, in.Italy of the prop-
ertied classes.~ “~*~ :

Above all, Fascism ana Communism
are one-party governments, for politi-
cal control is vested in the hands of a
single party, which alone is legal, and
which governs in the name and for
the benefit of the people as a whole.
The task of governing devolves on a
small group selected, not by popular
suffrage, but by self-appointment from
within the ranks of the party. Both
ruling groups assure their self-perpet-
uation in power by controlling the po-
litical institutions, the press and the
right of . association, thus effectively
blocking change by peaceful means.
Any attempt at their overthrow would
necessitate destruction of the entire
social fabric—a risk which many of
their opponents would hesitate to.
take:

Dictatorship by the party is dupli-
cated by dictatorship within the party.
In both Russia and Italy the govern-
ing pafty®is a “monolithic” unity,
whose members are held together by
rigid control from the top. Deviation
from the party line formulated by
the acknowledged leader—Mussolini
or Stalin—is -considered not merely as
an intra-party conflict but as treason
against the state,

We may well ask whether govern-
ment under Fascism and Communism
constitutes good government—good at
least to the extent of being preferable
to democracy. The Fascists and Com-
munists would reply that repression
and coercion are necessary until a new
and better social order is established,
in which all individuals will regard
work as a social service, and the ma-
chinery of the state will become un-
necessary and will gradually “wither
away.” Although the machinery
shows no signs of withering away
either in Russia or Italy, the use of
coercion is defended by Fascists and
Communists on the ground that their
ends can be achieved only by the use
of force, and that the end justifies the
We must immediately ask
what ends and by whom determined?
It is answered that these dictatorships
endeavor to solve modern economic
problems by so organizing national
economy as to assure a more equal
distribution of goods, terminate the
class struggle and prevent the para-
dox of want in the midst of plenty.

Has Fascism or commun solved

these problems? The Soviet govern-



scale attempt in the world to estab-
lish planned economy, but Soviet plan-

mand of the middle class for social | ning is not a harmonious process un-
order and stability, and today the|der which each plan sweeps to its
Fascists regard the preservation of appointed goal without hitch or delay.
social order in post-war Italy as one|The concentration of production in the

of their outstanding achievements.

heavy instead of the light industries

Both Fascism and Communism are!explains the apparent paradox that,

|more than merely a political or eco-| while the Soviet authorities report

nomic system; they ere an all-embrac-|constant industrial progress, the pop-

ing philosophy, a v.ay of life.. Both ulation continues to
‘have the characteristics of fanatical shortage of many necessities of life.

religious movements: unquestioning

experience a

The program of agricultural collect-

acceptance of a doctrine, intolerance jvization inaugurated in 1928 did not
of all other political faiths, and a de-'take into account the facts that the
sire to gain converts by persuasion if | production of agricultural machinery
possible, by force if necessary. The} and manufactured goods would be in-

| dogmatic character of Fascism and sufficient to meet the demands of the

interpretation on Mr. Stone’s part: ,Communism is the principal source of | peasants, and that the transportation

jthe last tragic chapters

! ’ i i . : . . :
Gogh’s life are in a sense parts of a ‘weaknesses: it maintains unity in the|

| east study. All of the

painter’s
Strength has been dissipated, and he
_lives on as a type of highly-strung
artist. His months*‘in the insane asy- |
‘lum leave him dormant artistically for |
‘long peridds, raging at his impotence |
and at the realization that he has no!
| control at all over his epileptic seiz- |
, ures. am |

| The first part of: the book is inter-

‘artist, the last of it is fascinating for
its study of an artist who is become
‘a man of the most earthbound sort.
_Whether the whole of Lust For Life
}is true in the sense that Van Gogh

‘really lived the life Mr. Stone de-

of Vincent Van Gogh is excellent read-
i ing.
f G. E. R.

















|
|

/

GREEN HILL FARMS
City Line and Lancaster Ave.
Overbrook-Philadelphia






reminder that we would like to











ranks of the party, but it may also|

pave the way for a severe reaction.
Both philosophies conceive of the
state as totalitarian and- all-embrac-

ing. All human activities and inter-|,

ests are brought under the control of
the state, which in reality is controlled
by a single political party. Individual
liberty is subordinated to the inter-

. j ' ests of the state, and if conflicts arise, |
|esting for its portrait of a man as an’ the individuals or groups opposing the |

|
|

state must be destroyed. The dicta-
torship in both countries does not ar-
bitrate between various groups and



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ment has inaugurated the first large-

Planned economy has not yet creat-
ed economic equality nor. materially
improved the standard of living. A
new social hierarchy, with Soviet of-
ficials and factory workers at the top,
peasants and intellectuals at the bot-
tom has arisen. The standard of liv-
ing has fallen, for, although money
wages have risen, real wages have de-
creased because of the depreciation of
the currency and the rise in the cost
‘of food. ;

: Fascism, unlike Communism, recog-
nizes private initiative, in industry,
trade and agriculture, but it demands
that private initiative shall serve the
interests of the state. It insists that
all conflicts between capital and labor
shall be adjusted by peaceful means:
strikes and lockouts are prohibited,
and the workers can form no inde-
pendent trade unions, the employers
no independent trade associations. The
Fascist government has tried to de-
crease Italy’s dependence on import-
ing such indispensable products as
wheat and coal, and to expand the ex-
port industries. But the increase in
home-produced wheat and coal has not
kept pace with the increase in the pop-
ulation and in the demands of expand-
ed industry. The-revaluing of the lira
in 1927 at a point too high for the po-
tentialities of Italian economy offset
what gains had been made.

Fascists and Communists say that
these economic hardships are offset by
the new spiritual atmosphere and in-
spiration which Fascism and Com-
munism afford. Both philosophies pro-
pound the belief. that the individual
finds his best fulfillment in subordina-
tion to the aims and interests of socie-
ty as a whole, for the life of the in-
dividual is brief, but the life of the
state is eternal. If the individual de-
sires more liberty than this concep-
tion affords, the Fascists and Com-
munists say that the interests of the
masses are more important than those
of the individual, that the masses are
little concerned with abstract emo-
tions or liberties, but demand a mini-
mum of collective experience. The
poet, the musician, the painter, and
even the scientist, must voice not indi-
vidual reactions, but mass emotions.

i. ee ae
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of, Van their strength and one of their great system had broken down.
























birthday or other anni-










beau geste

When it’s somebody’s

versary, greetings by
telephone are often cher-
ished more than a gift.
Use the telephone to show
you have not forgotten.
After all, that’s. the test
of true friendship. ;