1

Z-615

.

HE COLLEGE NEws





VOL. XXV, No. 3

BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1938

Copyright TRUSTEES OF
BRYN. MAWR COLLEGE, 1938

PRICE 10 CENTS





Fiasetice Allen
Gives First of
Shaw Lectures



Freedom and Unity Formed
Underlying Principle of
Constitution



LAWS NOT INFALLIBLE
-NOR. SELF - EXECUTING |



Goodhart, October 24.—Judge Allen
in the first of her six lectures en-
titled The Historical Development of
the Constitutional Powers spoke on

the Constitution as an Instrument of
Freedom. She pointed out that the
underlying purpose of the statute was
to form a government capable of giv-

- ing liberty and unity to its people,

while the economic motive, so often
said to be of primary importance
was only secondary in the minds of
those who framed it.

Since many of the provisions are
powerless as long as the public re-

’ mains ignorant of them, Judge Allen

—

urged that everyone read the Consti-
tution, understand its original pur-
pose and setting. and realizg that it, is
neither infallible nor completely self-
executing. Because the document
alone does not assure that the supreme
law of the land is being carried ‘out
everywhere, Judge Allen* ‘feels that
each generation. must recreate its own
freedom.

The history of the’ ‘American Revo-
lution, Judge Allen pointed out, has
been very dramatic with the hard-
ships of the pioneers, the endurance
of the soldiers and the spirit of free-
dom that permeated all classes, arti-
sans as well as aristocrats. Out of
this struggle came the Constitution
which unified America into a nation.
Such growth makes the noise of his-
tory, the noise, as Victor Hugo says,
of ‘wooden sabbots going up and
silken slippers coming down the steps
of time.”

Before leaving Europe, most of the
colonists had suffered persecution of
some sort ,or another and were de-
termined to establish freedom in the
new world; here they had been thrown
more and more on their own resources,
for when the Indians attacked, the
colonists had only themselves to rely
on. Freedom was in every settler’s
blood and was aggravated by Eng-
land’s numerous taxes and trade re-
strictions.

It is therefore unfajr, Judge Allen
said, to claim that the framers of

“the Constitution, taking part in this

same struggle for liberty, were moti-
vated primarily by the desire to en-
rich their own class.

They too sought
eer Continued on*Page*Six *



NEW SCIENCE BUILDING





Miss Park Presents |
Freshmen Statistics



' Music Room, October 18 and Oc-
tober
has devoted two chapel discussions
to freshman statistics, emphasizing
the fact that the large incoming class
has added 25 more students to the
college quota. The construction of
Rhoads, will allow the

continue

the. new hall,
to
which has been progressin’’ steadily
since. the building .6f the first hall,
Merion, and will continue to increase
until 500 students are enrolled. This
is the size Miss Park feels is most
suitable for a small college..

The completion of Rhoads South has
provided room for 84 more students
in residence. The college has living
quarters sufficient to accommodate 409
students now, and the 389 non-resi-

college its expansion,

dent students arid six juniors abroad
bring the total number .of the stu-
Continued on Page Four



COLLEGE CALENDAR

Friday, October 28.—Two one-
act plays to be given by the
Players’ Club. Goodhart, 8.30.
~ Saturday, October 29.—Den-

birch and Merion Hall dances.
Sunday, October 30. — Dr.
Helen Flanders’ Dunbar will

speak in chapel. Music Room,
1 Oa

Tuesday, November 1.—Cur-
rent Events, Mr. Fenwick. Com-
mon Room, 7.30.

Wednesday, November.2.—In-
dustrial Group Supper. Com-’
mon Room, 6.30.”

Thursday, November ik
exander Gettler to speak on
Chemistry in Crime Detection.
Goodhart, 8.30. :

Saturday, November 5.—Latin
Play. Goodhart, 8.30. Square
Dance. Gymnasium, 10 p. m.











iniensateent Impromptu Reveals Mine

Of Talent Amongst Graduate Students



Wyndham, October 23.—Alumnae
Weekend’s gayest entertainment was
International Impromptu, given at the
French House by a mixed group of
graduates and _ undergraduates.
Though it was not entirely impromptu,
it had all the freshness of a quick-
spur-of-the-moment undertaking . with-
out any of its faults; its particular
merit was that it revealed the mine

talent which has been housed in =e

nor like the Fort Knox gold, secure
and unattainable. Diverse accomplish-
ments were woven into a skit by Mar-
garet Otis, 39, who also played the
part of Miss Blinks, an effusive alum-
na, down at the heel but still enthusi-
astic.

Miss Blinks “opened the’ perforniiitice
by stomping in behind her little greup
and explaining to them the sort of}.

“thing that the alumnae would ‘Tike: to

see. Arsenia Arroyo, the Spanish stu-
dent, obligingly~npse to her feet and
accompahied by spirited music, swir-
ling skirts and castanets, danced a

Spanish dance. After she had retired
amid tumultuous: applause from the

Grazia “Avitable and Gavia Fan, the
Italian students, sang blatantly off key
and then accused each other of giving
the wrong impression of Italian opera.
‘Their conversation was put to a tem-
porary halt by the reappearance of
Miss Arroyo, who this time combined

dancing and singing. Another gentle
disagreement arose’ between the Chin-

Woo. Miss Ch’en was playing a very
interesting Chinese melody on a two-
stringed-violin, when Miss Woo. hur-
riéd in and wrested the violin away
from her... Miss Blinks tactfully inter-
vened by“asking the Freneh and Fin-

and Anna Hietanen, what they could
do. Miss Jacquemond was of a retir-
Ling nature, and. Miss_Hietanen, equip-

ped with a hammer and what we hope

belt, had “to zo on a Geology Field
Trip:” For no particular reason, a
‘strange uproar arose after she made
this announcement and it was only
quieted when a messenger came in and

bona fide alumnae, the other Students} 35, ped a telegram into Miss Blinks’

played their parts, each in the peated
her country. eras

eg
‘ if
ee sa

ee |
er, eo EarOnigen were eon

hand. Opening it, she rea

— a2
rieicoinubacte on Page d



ese students, Agnes Ch’en and Nancy

nish ‘students, Solangé. Jacquemond

wag a Finnish knife dangling from her |,

Lectures Informal
~ At Summer School



Union and Non-Union Workers

20.—This year Presidést.Parkm Enrolled Represent Cross

Section of Labor



(Especially Contributed by Eleanor
K, Tost, 89 and Helen J. Cobb, ’40)

When Judge Allen said Monday
night that the preservation of liberty
needs constant education,’ she touched
on the purpose of the Summer School.
It was founded in 1921 by Pres. M.
Carey Thomas and Dean Hilda Smith
of Bryn Mawr College “to give a pen
and tongue to the Labor Movement.”
Because it was not factional, and be-
cause of the quality of its leadership,
four similar schools dre today serving

‘| workers elsewhere’ in the United
States. Yearly about seventy girls go
from Bryn Mawr with knowledge

which should.make them better mem-
bers of their community.

The Bryn Mawr students are hand-,
picked workers from Y.W.C.A. and
union groups east of Denver and north
of Atlanta, Ga. This year the four
foreign students were from Canada,
England and Denmark. Sofie Fricke,
the Danish girl is now studying at
Pendel Hill near Swarthmore. She
may come to the November 2nd meet-

Continued on Page Five



Expert On Detection’
of Crime Will Speak

Alexander Q. Gettler, chief toxicolo-
gist for the City of New York, will
speak on Chemistry and the Detection
of Crime at 8 p. m. on Thursday, No-
vember 38, in Goodhart Hall. Mr.
Gettler is a world authority on “death
under mysterious circumstances” and
his lecture, sponsored by the Science
Club,. should. interest. lovers~.of-.detee-
tive fiction particularly. A~previous



a male member of the audience
‘fainted.

All deaths in New York City which
are not attended by a physiciah are
reported to Mr. Gettler’s staff, and
whenever the cause baffles routine
analysis, he is responsible for dis-
covering it. Mr. Crenshaw,, of the
themistry department here, says that
reports of Mr. Gettler’s activities,
particularly in poison cases, appear
in the N. Y. Times at least once a
week.

Mr. Crenshaw, who_heard Mr. Get-
tler speak several years ago and
recommended that the Science Club
‘arrange this lecture, says that he
cites many noted murder cases which
his toxicological evidence has solved.
Mr. Gettler’s method of determining
whether a victim has_ been drowned
ih salt or fresh: water jS-uséd all-over

’ Continue@ on Page Five



i ~—~Prize-W inner
Frances Fox, ’38, won a play-
writing competition this sum-
-mer at the Breadloaf School in
Mfidlebury, Vermont. Herprize-
winning play was written” last
- year in the Play Writing course
- conducted by Mr¥. ‘Herbert Mc-

fAneny.
cae













li
F

lecture once became so exciting that.

ist canenetn aS SR A

Srintce Building Opens Amid

Series of Lectures to Alumnae



‘Norman L. Bowen Speaks

And Geology; Growth of Sciences’ Since -
Pre-Dalton Days Traced

on Alliance of Chemistry



! FACULTY CONDUCT

DISCUSSION GROUPS





October 23—On Sunday morning
four separate conferences were -held
|for the benefit of the alumnae by the
|departments of psychology, physics,
|mathematics and biology. The topic
| discussed was the place of these de-

-|partments in the college curriculum.

3. Psychology

The Library, October 23.—Psychol-
ogy is. by nature. the nucleus of a
curriculum in that it is the meeting
place not only of the. stiences, but also
of the humanities, for it is in psy-
chology that the study of matter, life, |
mind, and _ society converge. Mr.
MacKinnon gave the alumnae this
answer to the question of the’ place
of the Psychology. Department in the
college curriculum. :

Psychology as a science is co-exten-
sive with all other sciences. Roughly
dividing the fields of psychological | t
research into Sensation; Perception,
Learning, Motivation, Personality ‘and
Character, Mr. MacKinnon pointed
out that research in Sensation and

physics, research in Learning and
Motivation with biology, and research
in the fields of Personality and Char-
acter with the hitial sciences.
Students who have taken merely
the introductory first year course are
at onéé’ aware of its many contacts
with their other fields of study. As
Continued on Page Two

|Player’s Club to Give
.° Experimental One-Acts





Comedy and Tragedy Present

Contrast _in__Atmosphere



The Players’ Club will give two
one-act plays on Friday, October 28.

The plays, The Great Dark, by
Totheroh, and The Devil on Stilts, by
Ryerson and Clements, have — been

chosen both with the idea of present-
ing a variety of: problems for the
east and production—staffs_ to solve,
and with the intention of giving the
audience as great as possible a con-
trast in atmosphere. Both are mod-
ern, but the first is a realistic drama,

‘he second is a comedy, lighter and
more urbane. They are being pro-
luced as cheaply as possible, since
their main purpose is to provide ex-

Pp ==———"Wontinued on Page six"

Perception is most closely allied with:

A

‘et in a small Western mining town; |

GOODHART PROGRAM
PRECEDES OPENING .

Goodhart Hall, October 22.—The
New Science Building was. officially’



opened today following a program of
speeches which outlined ‘the develop-
ment of the sciences at Bryn Mawr.
Miss Park, describing the general ex-
pansion in this field since the found-
ing of the college, was . followed by
Miss «Florence. Bascom, professor
emeritus of geoJ6gy, and Dr. Louis
I’. Fieser, associgte professor of chem-
Co at Bryn ‘om 1925 to
1930 and now provesswr of chemistry
| at Harvard University. The exact
significance of the new, building, and
of the whole’ plan for the joint teach-
ing of sciences, was pointed out by
Norman L. Bowen, Ph.D., distin-
guished service professor of petrology
at the University of Chicago, in his
talk on the Alliance of. Chemistry and
Geology.

Miss Park showed how the history
of scientific expansion here, including
present developments; has followed al-
most. exactly the principles laid down
by the founders. Dr. James &,
Rhoads, first president of. the college,
in his 1884 report to the Trustees,
emphasized the interrelation of the
sciences.

Joint Teaching Forecast

“Chemistry,” said Dr. Rhoads,
“which treats of the atomic and mole-
cular relations of matter, is the basis
of ‘allied sciences.” Physics, which
is closely connected with chemistry, is
in js turn necessary to the right un-
derstanding of mineralogy, geology,
and biology. The latter, starting
with the commonest principles of ani-
mate~—action, soon separates into the
great divisions of botany and zoology,
and to the: higher developments of
human physiology and psychology.”

Dr. Joseph Taylor, who gave Bryn >
Mawr its original endowment of one
million dollars, wanted to build a sci-
entific laboratory at the beginning.
This was not found possible, and the
first-courses in chemistry and biology
had to be taught in inadequate labo-
ratories in Taylor.- The physics de-
partment, started in 1887, was housed
inf the small wooden building back of
Merion.

Agitation for a real laboratory went
on, and in-1892 several friends gave
the 40 thousand dollars necessary to
build Dalton. Three years later Miss





At Traditional

‘Freshman Class Receives Blue Lanterns

Ceremonial in Cloisters



Lantern Night is one of the few col-
lege traditions which seems not to
change. Buildings continue to rise on
every hand; hoops are no longer given
away in Senior Row; even the vener-
able busts in Taylor have yielded to
the seemingly -irresistable force of
progress. But ‘still each year, on a
Friday night in October, cap-and-

| gown-é¢lad sophomores, file into the

cloisters swinging lanterns and chant-
Si their hymn of praise to Pallas
Athena, And still the freshman, after
receiving their lamps of learning,
march out singing the same “eopias
philae paromen. -

However, ‘tiacletvs: with visiting

has ‘a long and interesting history. In

EE os the first entering class
rr were sophomores, they decided to give

a play for their bewildered freshmen.
At the end of the show, with great
flourishes and much mirth, the fresh-
men were given tiny lanterns, about
three or four inches high, to guide
them along the tortuous path to learn-
ing and, more specifically, to help
them through college. The gesture was

touched some deep-laid chord of. feel-



alumnae’ reveal that -Lanterm, Night:

intended..as a joke, -but evidently it}



ing in the, freshmen, for the next year
we find them repeating the perform-
ance for the entering class of ’91.
This system of presenting the lan-
terns was still in practice when the
class of ’98 graduated, but sometime
before 1901 the cere ny had been

moved outside. The sophomores now
walked slowly around the campus, in-
toning “Pallas Athena thea”; the
freshmen, upon receiving their lan-
terns, responded by singing their ‘class
song. :

The library was built in 1904, but

apparently it was several years before

anyone realized what a perfect. setting 4
the cléisters would make for-am occa- eee
sion like Lantern Night. Eventually, -
however, the realization came, and the |
ceremony was -again—-changed to fit ——
even. better its new rather monastic
setting. se eas

For some time, the Freshman song
was different each year, but at some
unknown date it was standardized, and
a hymn called “Over the Way to the
Sacred Shrine” became the regular re-
sponse. The sent “Sophias Philae,”

translated from; Pericles funeral ora-
Continieedl on Page Three

ey,

— “Continued on ae

©