1

-M. Slonim Sees

accept an appointment of Profes-

. History. He comes from the Uni-







WOL. XLVI, NO. 18



Optimism, Faith
In Soviet Work

USSR Literature Today
Describes Pioneer

As Hero

In the fourth in the series of tri-
college lecture series on Russia at
Haverford, March 15, Mare Slo-
nim, professor at Sarah Lawrence
College, surveyed Soviet life as re-
flected in its literature.

Concentrating on the positive
side of the situation, Mr. Slonim
felt the main currents in the liter-
ature of the U. S. S. R. today are
realistic and optimistic. Although
this optimism appears by imposi-
tion as well as by nature, “You
feel that here are people who have
decided to say yes to life, a people
with great faith in themselves
and in the future.”

Literature is taken seriously.
‘The author takes part in the life
of the community and through his
own medium tries to shape life.
Responsibility for every published
word is keenly felt, which may ex- |
plain the fact that there is no so-
called entertainment literature in
Russias as there is in the West.
‘Comic strips, ‘hammock’ novels are
non-existent. Authors are among
the candidates for membership in
the Supreme Soviet. The Central
‘Committee of the Communist Par-
ty decides on literary policy, and
the goverment attaches great im-
portance to what is being printed,
for there is an avid reading public.
The U.S. S. R. leads the world in
book production and most books
are read all over Russia.



Since it is part of the Commun-
ist doctrine to change the tradi-
tional human attitude toward
work from that of pain to pleas-
ure, Soviet writing today empha-
sizes the sanctification of human
-~work—human effort in the face of

Continued on Page 2

Leighton, Dudden
Named To Posts

Professor John Chester Miller
thas resigned his appointment as
Associate Professor of History to

ssor of American History at Stan-
ford University.

Mr. Arthur P. Dudden has been
appointed Assistant Professor of

versity of Michigan where he will
receive the Ph.D. this June. Mr.
Dudden took his A.B. at Wayne
University in 1942 and his M.A.
‘from the University of Michigan
‘in 1947. From 1942 to 1945 he
served as Flight Officer in the
United States Navy. From 1945-
46 he was. Veterans Counsellor in
the Ford Motor Company and then
he returned to the University to
complete his work in American
History.

‘In Political Science, ‘Miss Ger-
“trude C. K. Leighton, A.B., Bryn
‘Mawr 1938, has been appointed
Assistant Professor. She will car-
‘ry part of the first-year work and
the course in International Law.
After taking her LL.B. at Yale
University,. she practiced law in
‘New York and. then returned to
Yale where she has been special-

‘rights~-unless~-you--are~-willing to



‘izing in international law.

LeBlane Defines
Logical Theories
As Ethical Code

Common Room, March 15.—Dr.
Hugues Leblanc read a paper on
“Rigorous Ethics’ to the Phil-
osophy Club. It dealt with the
validity of moral, or logical rules;
and set up a code of conduct with
the theme: “Regard thyself in all
thy actions as shaping man’s doom
or man’s hope, as shaping man’s
destiny.” I am bound to do some-
thing only if someone has a right
to it. Acquired rights are based
on a contract. Natural rights are
not guaranteed by agreement.

Disearding absolute natural
rights as unprovable subjunctive
principles, Dr. Leblane considered
natural rights as relative. This
proposes: let us grant to z any-
thing claimed by someone like x.
It follows from this that we should
concede to humanity that which
an individual claims. The in-
equality among men insists that
we alter this to read: x has a
relative right to y if some other
being morally like x has a right
to claim y. We then postulate three
rules of morality.

Under the rule of social justice,
you cannot interfere with anyone’s |

renounce your own. If you kill
a man, you are disclaiming your
own right to existence. Society
agrees.. to. protect your natural
Continued on Page 6

Seibert Discusses

Tubercle Bacillus

Dr. Florence B. Seibert, Associ-
ate Professor of Biochemistry at
the Henry Phipps Institute of the
University of Pennsylvania, dis-
cussed Taking Apart the Tubercle
Bacillus in last Tuesday’s’ Science
Club lecture in Dalton.

Dr. Seibert ‘prefaced her talk by
explaining that the tubercle bacil-
lus, within three weeks after it has
entered the body, causes a reac-
tion to a part of the bacillus ap-
plied to the skin. Later, the ba-
cillus produces wherever it lodges
aggregations of abnormal cells,
called tubercles. :All tubercle ba-
cilli, whether or not pathogenic,
can be identified by a certain sim-
ple test, and are therefore said to
be acid-fast.

The National Tuberculosis As-
sociation divided the ‘study of the
bacillus into two parts: a study of
the bacillus itself and a study of
tuberculin, the filtrate on which it
is grown. A pure strain of the
bacillus was grown on a synthetic
medium of known components,
which could therefore be separat-
ed from the substance which the
germ produces. The bacillus was
studied to find out which parts
produce the different symptoms of
tuberculosis. By an _ extremely
complex process, fractions have
been isolated from the bacillus.
One, phthiolic acid, will produce
tubercules in rabbits. ‘Another,
mucolic acid, has been found to be
responsible for acid fastness.

Skin testing with tuberculin it-
self is inaccurate, because tuber-
culin is hard to obtain in standard
concentration. Study of tubercu-
lin has aimed to produce a stand-
ard product for diagnosis. The ac-
tive material in tuberculin, a pro-
tein called ppd, has been isolated;
it is injected into the skin, and will



ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1950



“Vee College Mews



Copyright, Trustees of
Bryn Mawr College, 1950





Continued on Page 2



Sycamores and Entourage





Maritain Asserts
Natural Law Basis
For Man’s Rights

Specially Contributed
by Betty Goldblatt, °51

Dr. Jacques Maritain, eminent
vhilosopher and at present Pro-
fessor of Philosophy at Princeton
University, spoke at Villanova
Sollege on Monday, March 20 on
the subject “The Rights of Man
and Natural Law.” Dr. Maritain
asserted that the rational founda-
tion of the rights of man is na-
tural law.

Nawural law is not written; it is
ontological, and dwells as the ideal
law in the being of every existing
thing. In discussing the concept
of natural law, Dr. Maritain said
itis taken for granted that “there
is human nature, which is the
same in all men; and that man is
a being gifted with intelligence
and with the power to determine
for himself the ends which he pur-
sues.” Man knows natural law, not
through rational knowledge or
through deduction, but through
“natural inclination.” Hence, na-
tural law is known in different de-
grees, and subject to error and
corruptions of judgment. But Dr.
Maritain denied Pascal’s conten-
tion that if there were such a
thing as universal natural law, it
would be universally observed, by
saying that “violations of moral
law prove nothing more about er-
ror in natural law than errors in
arithmetic prove the error of
mathematics.” The existence of
the law and the observance of the
law are two different matters.

According to Dr. Maritain, na-

Continued on Page 2

CALENDAR

Tuesday, April 4

European Fellowship Assem-
bly, Dr. Hajo Holborn, Ran-
dolph W. Townsend, Jr., Pro-
fessor of History, Yale Univer-
sity, “The Challenge of Re-
search”, Goodhart, 12:00 noon.
Wednesday, April 5

“Morning Assembly, Mrs.
Broughton, Goodhart, ‘8:45 a.m.
Monday, April 10

Current Events, speaker to
be announced, Common Room,



7:15 p.m.
Tuesday, April 11

Sigma Xi Lecture, Dalton,
8:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 12
French Club Lecture, Jacques
Maritain, Wyndham, 4:30 p.m.
German Club Lecture, Dr.
Arno Shirokauer, Common
Room, 8:00 p.m.







11926 to 1931 he was Assistant Pro-



Dr. Hajo Holborn
To Give Graduate
Assembly Speech

Hajo Holborn, Professor of His-
tory at Yale University, will be the
guest speaker at the Graduate As-
sembly, April 4, at twelve o’clock
in Goodhart Hall.

Mr. Holborn, born in Berlin,
Germany, came to the United
States in 1984, and was made a na-
turalizedcitizen_ in 1940. He _ re-
ceived his Ph. D. at the University
of Berlin in 1924, and an honorary
M. A. from Yale in 1940. From

fessor of History at the University
of Heidelberg, and from 1931 to
1934 was the Carnegie Professor
of History and International Rela-
tions at the School of Politics in
Berlin.

Coming to the United States as
Visiting Professor of History at
Yale University in 1934, he retain-
ed this position until 1938, and
then, from. 1938 to 1940, was an
associate professor there, until in
1940 he was made a full Professor
of History.

In 1948, Dr. Holborn took a
two year leave of absence for
service with the Office of Strategic
Services in Washington, D. C. Af-
ter returning to his academic ca-

Continued on Page 2



———

PRICE 15 CENTS

Comedy Shows
Fine Direction
And Production

Richardson and Nevitt,
McKinley’s Set
Excel

by Jane Augustine, ’52



Last weekend Bryn Mawr and
Haverford collaborated dramatical-
ly to produce Kaufman and Hart’s
You Can’t Take It With You. Mar-
jie Low, in her first Drama Guild
directorship, combined a_ highly-
developed knowledge of theater
with long experience as an actress
and skillfully overcame some of
the play”s great difficulties. She
was at times so skillful that the
audience — rather unfortunately —
did not realize she was handling
a problem at all. The weaknesses
of this production were at least
not the usual weaknesses, nor al-
ways the ones inherent in the play.
They were well outside the prov-
ince of the director and the stage
manager; they must be ascribed to
certain individual performances.
Sadly enough, these are the weak-
nesses most damaging to a play.
A good actor can make a character
live in spite of bad directing and
producing, but highly intelligent
direction and production can at
best cover up bad acting only tem-
porarily. It can’t make an actor
out of somebody who isn’t.

It was fairly obvious that some
of the cast weren’t. The cast was,
however, about the best Marjie
could assemble under the circum-
stances. Trish Richardson was
outstanding. Although she pre-
sented many facets of Penny Syca-
more’s' personality, she never
stretched them beyond the limits
of probability nor varied them out
of character. As mother of the
menage Sycamore she was absurd-
ly illogical, over-eager, yet a senti-
mental, kindhearted soul with a
love for everything and everybody.
The feelings one has about Penny

Continued on Page 6



Bryn Mawr, Haverford Choruses
Give Joint Concert in New York

by Judith Konowitz, ’51

The Bryn Mawr College Chorus
and the Haverford College Glee
Club gave a joint concert in the
Hunter College Playhouse on Sat-
urday night, March 18th.

The main work on the program
was Vaughan Williams’ “Mass in
G Minor” for both choruses and
soloists under the direction of
Robert Goodale. Pamela Field, so-
prano, Nancy Ludwig, alto, Tom
MeNutt, tenor, and Joseph Dibble,
bass, sang the solo parts. The
work was executed effectively
but fell short of the high stan-
dard displayed by the choruses in
their individual performances.

The Bryn Mawr group next per-
formed “Two Chorals” harmon-
ized by Max Reger, and Vittoria’s
“Ave Maria.” The Double Octet
sang a Banchieri ‘Madrigaletto,”
and Roussel’s “Madrigal aux
Muses” with excellent tone and
blending. The whole chorus then
joined the small group in singing
Kodaly’s “Angels and the Shep-
herds,” ending the performance on
a note of spirit and finesse.

The Haverford Glee Club, di-



rected by William H. Reese, gave
a delightful and skillful perform-
ance, beginning with two rounds.
“Gently Johnny,” an English Folk
Song by Seth Bingham, was ex-
ecuted with subtle shading, excel-
lent blending, and perfect enuncia-
tion. “Lovely is May” by Schain
and “Farewell My Love” by Clem-
ens non papa were similar in style.
The concluding “Maid in the
Forest” by Dworak offered a wel-
come change of mood. The emo-
tional grandeur of the singing was
enhanced by an accompaniment for
four hands, played by John Dav
ison and John Guttmacher.

The Small Mixed Chorus next
performed two Russian works,
Rachmaninoff’s “Ave Maria,” and
Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Thy Lovely
Dwelling Place” under Mr. Reese’s
direction.

The two full choruses joined
once again for a stirring finale,
Parry’s “Jerusalem,” an ‘inspiring
song set to Blake’s poem. After
the intricate part-music of the
evening, the rendition in unison
was an exciting surprise and a fit-
ting culmination.