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Page Two

THE COLLEGE NEWS







THE COLLEGE NEWS

(Founded in 1914)



Bryn Mawr College.

Published weekly during the College Year (except during Thanksgiving,
Christmas and Easter holidays, and during examination weeks) in the interest
of Bryn Mawr College at the Ardmore Printing Company, Ardmore, Fa., and



Editor-in-Chief.

The College News is fully protected by copyright.
in it may be reprinted either wholly or in part without permission of the

Nothing that appears



Mary Vircinia More, ’45, Copy
APRIL OURSLER, "46 —

Naney Morenouse, °47
MarGarET Rupp, °47
THELMA BALDASSARRE, ’47
RosaAMOND Brooks, *46
Mapccta DembBow,.’47
Cecit1a ROSENBLUM,. ’47
E.IzABETH Day, *47
Sports
Carox BALiarp, 45

SaRAH G. BECKWITH, °46

Harji Maik, *45
ELIzABETH MANNING, 746
NaNcy STRICKLER, °47

Editorial Board
ALISON MERRILL, 45, ° Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Staff—

Photographer
HANNAH KAUFMANN, 746

Business Board
Mita AsHODIAN, °46, Business Manager
BarBara WiiiiaMs, °46, Advertising Manager

ANN WERNER, 747

Subscription Board
MarGareET Loup, 46, Manager

Patricia PLATT, ’45, News
SUSAN OULAHAN, °46, News

Patricia BEHRENS, °46
LANIER DuNN, °47
_ Darst Hyatt, *47
MonnieE BELLow, *47
Rosina BATESON, °47
EmyLy Eyarts, ’47
ZaurRA DImMonp, *47
Cartoons
JEAN SMITH, °46

ANNE KINGsBuRY, "47

CHARLOTTE BINGER, *45
Lovina. BRENDLINGER, °46
HELEN GILBERT, "46





Entered as second class matter at the Ardmore, Pa., Post Office ,
Under Act of Congress August 24, 1912





The New Magazine

Within the coming week,

a new literary magazine will

make its appearance on campus, in answer to the challenge
thrown out by the abandonment of the Lantern. It is an ac-
tualization of the general campus feeling that there should
and must be an organ of expression for creative talent.

We had been told by the editors of the Lantern that
there was neither the material nor the demand for a maga-

zine.

The answer ,to the latter of these charges was evi-

denced first in News editorials calling either for the revival
of the Lantern, or for a completely new magazine, and finally
in the effort of these five Freshmen who initiated the pub-

lication of The Title.

Material is obviously® present

It is in a way a sad comment that the only members of
the undergraduate body to take constructive action in oppo-
sition to the statement of the Lantern editors were Fresh-
men. It may be that the upperclassmen have become so
stagnated, and are immersed so deeply in a traditional in-
ertia, that they have not the interest or the drive to put over
such a plan. The detail work involved in carrying out the
conception of a new magazine is staggering. It is more than
commendable that such a small group, and-such a—young

group could see it through.

But if the upperclassmen, and the campus as a whole,
are guilty of inertia and lack of interest, they can be vindi-
cated only by wholehearted, sympathetic and constructive
support of The Title. The material contained in it is varied,
original, and high in quality. ‘There can be no question of its
being unrepresentative, no charge of over-stereotyped stor-

ies.
uted to the maiden issue.
poetry are included.

Our students, our faculty, and one alumna have contrib-
Humor, philosophy, fiction and

Its founders and initiators have done a tremendous job.
They have not only made a contribution to campus life, but
have given actual proof that the creative spirit is not dead

at Bryn Mawr.

We are not limited to griping and theoriz-

ing. Constructive action has been taken. It is the duty of
the undergraduate body to support it. Only with our sup-

port can it succeed.





WIT*S END

“There’s many a slip ’twixt the
cup and the lip”—and even more
in the copy! Review the news of
the year for us, say the alumnae,
but we, leafing through the files,
see only the nightmares of num-
erous nights on the News.

“Where’s Chan’s head?” “Who's
sitting on the Vocational. Confer-
ence?” and “Let’s cut. two inches
off Manning.” :

On and on we go, on past.the
closing of our Soda Fountain of,
knowledge, on past the evening
visit of Joe the Watchman, on past

smoking room. Professor O. Hal-
eski becomes O’Haska. The lec-
turer speaks in “Armor.” Eyery
Trapp has a great big Trapp and
the littlest Trapp is Johannes
Trapp and it all came from a New
York press agent.

Bertrénd Russell reviews prin-
ciples of interference in logic.
Smedley raises the red bar in
China. Students are requested to
stop cutting professors’ glasses.
Geology class takes field slip. “Oh,
send out our best reporters to in-
terview the squirrels.”

“Has anybody seen Merrill, the
dummy? I mean has anybody seen
the dummy, Merrill? I mean, who
has-the copy,-and why wouldn’t
they serve model-to the Liquor



the last cigarette, on to the Rhoads



League?



Donnelly Recalls History
Of Literary Attempts
On Campus



(Editor’s note: The News asked
Miss Lucy Martin Donnelly, ’93, var-
iously reader, lecturer, associate pro-
fessor and professor of English from
1896 to 1936, to. contribute to
special issue for the alumnae some-
thing of the history of the Lantern.
Miss Donnelly felt that she could not
write an adequate history of the
Lantern without more research into
the past than she was able to under-
take at that time, but she very“grac-
iously wrote in its stead a letter to
the News).

In brief, I remember hardly
more than the thrilling occasion
in the old sitting-room in Merion
when the plan for a college mag-
azine was launched by Elizabeth
Winsor Pearson; the design for
the cover by Maxwell Parrish
promised by a cousin of his; the
first years when ’92, ’93, ’94 were
editors and the stories and_ es-
says contributed—at that period
we wrote ‘“essays’—all seemed
brilliant and delightful. Even then
95, more sophisticated than the
earlier classes, thinking the Lan-

tern stodgy and precious, set wp’

in rivalry probably the cleverest
paper that Bryn Mawr has ever
had, The Fortnightly Philistine.
After a few years, The Philistine,
pure and simple, succeeded it.
Then the Typti-o-bob and the Col-
lege News came to fill the de-
mand for current information.

Meanwhile the Lantern has had
a checkered history between per-
iods of spirited revival and of
non-existence altogether, such as
they tell me now threatens. A
journal which is not merely a
newspaper presents serious prob-
lems in a small college as hard-
working as Bryn Mawr and is apt
to be successful only at times
when a group of students _ spec-
ially interested, take it in hand
with zest and talent. Such times
inevitably recur; from the prom-
ise among student writers at
present the College--may well be
on the eve of one.

“The old Bryn Mawr”, about
which you ask, other alumnae
can create for you better than I
who have been so long closely
connected with the College that
the earlier _years_are almost lost
for me in the gradual unfolding
of the later. The intellectual in-
terest has been from first to last
the very heart of all, but with
time “the trees on the campus
have grown”, as an alumnae once
pointed out with surprise. The
life had been enriched and the ac-
tivities more varied. The Cloisters
nowadays, I confess, are strange
to me, the hair worn to Victorian
eyes a la dishabille. Yet the oth-
er evening when I saw the Mika-
do with President McBride at my
side as I used to see undergradu-
ate performances with President
Thomas I recognized Bryn Mawr
unmistakably—and happily—des-
pite the Japanese setting. Not
that the music of old equalled
that of the ’40’s by a long shot.
In the ’80’s and ’90’s we had only
a tinkling piano in the little new
brick gym to accompany our In-
dian Clubs and Chest-weights.
The 40’s looked, and may I sav
“acted” Bryn-Mawr—might ‘2.
been 97, 1908, 08, °1f, Zi, ’22 or
any of the other 20’s or 30’s. The
admirable choruses, the sweet-
singing Yum Yum, the Ko Ko
skillfully, gracefully _ executing
capers, the Mikado taller and of
a more awful humor than perhaps
any yet on the Dryn Mawr stage.

The College has not only im-
mensely bettered its music, but
its traditions of good acting and
of wit have mellowed with its
fifty-nine years.

Sincerely yours,
Lucy Martin Donneliy

the

| net be approached directly with-

English Composition Staff
Asserts Liberal Aims
Of Course —

__

To the Editor:

Now that the results of-the_ poll
on Required English Composition
have been analyzed, it seems ap-
propriate for the staff to say some-
thing further about the course. We
do not think that most students,
if they understood the issues,
would wish to see the course re-
duced to the mere imposition of
technique or the mere imparting
of information. (We believe that
the course must be continued as a
liberal one in which the focus is
on the individual] student and the
independence of her thinking. We
have perhaps been mistaken in as-
suming that the relation of these
aims to the teaching of writing
has been clear; but, it is now ap-
parent that the connection has not
been understood.

The majority of students, once
they the
with which we have to deal, will

understand problems

probably want to seé only such
changes made in the course as
will make it better adapted to

the needs of the individual. We
feel it is necessary, therefore, to
give a brief description of those
problems and to outline our prin-
ciples in dealing with them. The
most obvious problem in writing
is the observance of a set of con-
ventions: grammar, spelling punc-
tuation, sentence structure, usage.
On most of these there is general
agreement, and the teacher’s task
is to see that they are observed.
Usage changes with time, how-
ever; the prose of the twentieth
century is not that of the nine-
teenth. We endeavor to take as
our standard the usage of the
best contemporary writers. We
do not hold ourselves responsible
for enforcing outworn conven-
tions; that we should regard as
pedantry. A second problem, one
which goes beyond the question
of convention, is logic: the ar-
rangement of thought within the
sentence, the paragraph, and the
essay as a whole, This—-is——no
superficial question, and a large
part of the teacher’s time is oc-
cupied with it. For the student,
indeed for all of us, logic in writ-
ing is connected with the clarity,
independence, and integrity of
‘thinking. Clear thinking, in turn,
depends upon honest observation
of facts, and upon ability to set
aside self-interest and emotional
bias. Therefore it is necessary
that students should write often
from first-hand observation and
sometimes on controversial sub-
jects.

Correctness and logic are very
important qualities in writing,
but a student often hopes_ to
achieve something further. She
wants to form ,her own manner
of writing, her own style.- This
third problem is difficult and can-

jut more harm than benefit. An
| assumed style is a collection of
mannerisms. A true style is the
direct reflection of an individual’s
manner of thinking;: it is the re-
sult of the convictions and the re-
lationships that make us what we
are, and it is attained only by a
process of maturing. Goethe
said: “the style of b writer is \ a
faithful representative of his
mind; therefore, if any man wish
to write a clear style, let him be
first clear in his thoughts; and if
any would write in a noble style,
let him first possess a noble soul”,
The reading assigned in the re-





quired ‘composition course is in-







| ES. c vents

‘ Common Room, May 16. “The
poll tax is the greatest single bar-
rier to democratic voting,” declar-
ed Susan B. Anthony II in a talk
on The Poll Tax and the Election.
“Once it is defeated the way will
be open for a surge of liberalism
in the South.” At present, she
explained, ten million American
citizens are virtually disfranchised, _
a fact which accounts for the re- '
actionary nature of the. present
‘Congress.



Only twenty -two..-percent...of.
Southerners of voting age may
vote; three percent actually elect
the congressmen, as contrasted
with twenty-five percent in the
North. Thus it happens that more
votes are cast for two representa-
tives in Rhode Island than for fifty
poll tax representatives—that is,
that it takes seven times as many
votes to elect a Northern as a
Southern congressman. The South-
erners also stay in office much
longer; in the last election, sixty
of seventy-nine poll tax congress-
men had no opposition.

From being a local problem, the
poll tax has become a national is-
sue, Miss Anthony declared. Lib-
erals and labor leaders in the
South had hoped that the latest
poll tax bill might be passed, but
it was indirectly defeated yester-
day by a vote of “no closure.”

The poll tax is not a race ques-
tion; as a matter of fact more
whites than negroes are disen-
franchised by it. Nor does it in-
volve the issue of states’ rights,
for “only federal action can get
rid of this blight.”” The poll tax
is purely political, a measure or-
iginated in 1890 to block the Pop-
ulist Party, composed of farmers.
and workers, and it has been act-
ive ever since in keeping low in-
come groups from the polls.

Miss Anthony emphasized the
importance of supporting the next
anti-poll tax movement, for it is
an issue “which not only deter-
mines the kind of legislation we
get, but also the kind of world we
live in.” She illustrated this point
with the consistent sabotage of
progressive legislation by poll tax
congressmen, and said that ten
out of twenty-four committees in
the Senate, and fourteen out of
twenty-four in the House are-dom-
inated by poll taxers.



tended to assist the student to
think with more maturity. At the
end of the year the student will
have come into contact with a
number of the most important
ideas operative in the contempor-
ary world. Unless she is wholly
inaccessible to ideas, some of
these will have had an effect on
her mind. She will have been
stimulated to do her own thinking
on some of the problems that are
of most importance to all of us;
ad to the extent that her thinking
has crystallized, she will have de-
veloped her own manner of ex-
pression.

Acquiring a body of informa-
tion and conventional habits of
expression is only a part of edu-
cation. But if we make of this
acquisition an end in itself, edu-
cation becomes an extremely friv-
olous and egotistical affair. For
some years now the women’s col-
leges have pioneered in giving to
the study of English a more ser-
ious aim. We are confident that
Bryn Mawr does not wish to lead
a retrograde movement , toward
the older modes of teaching. “We
shall continue to regard the teach-
ing of writing not as a narrowly
utilitarian instrument, but as a
serious intellectual pursuit.

The Required English
Composition Staff.

a