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THE COLLEGE NEWS



VOL. XLIII, NO. 19

ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA..

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1947

Copyright Trustees. of
Bryn Mawr College, 1945

PRICE 10 CENTS



Fire In Rhoads
Results n$1500
Damage to Hall

Room

Smoke billowed from the maids’
wing of Rhoads Hall Thursday
nizht, April 3, as both Bryn Mawr
and Ardmore Fire Departments
fought to extinguish a blaze on the
second floor.

The fire, caused by cigarette

sparks that had lodged in the
cushions of a sofa, started in the
maids’ sitting room where several
of the maids nad had callers earl-
jer in the evening. \A kitchen man
noticed the smoke around ten
o’clock, and immediately sent in
the two-bell alarm. The fire, how-
ever, had been smouldering quite
some time before it was discovered.
Crowds returning from the Har-
ard and Bryn Mawr Concert at
Goodhart watched the action from
the terraces of the Deanery and
in the driveway.

When the firemen arrived, dense
smoke had consumed the third floor
maids’ rooms and some were throw-
ing the blazing furniture and cush-
ions out of the window onto the
drive. The fire was extinguished
after about 20 minutes.

The room in*which it started was
completely damaged to an estim-
ated cost of $1500. The blackened

-cwals revealed charred and broken

‘plastere A smouldering black heap
of springs, fabric, furniture and
rubbish filled the floor and corri-
Smoke still rose from the
torn and charred curtains which
lay in a black mass under the brok-
en window. Long after the fire-
men had finished, the walls of the
room and the corridor remained
red hot.

Mrs. Baldwin, manager of the
Hall, remarked that it was fortun-
ate that Rhoads is a fireproof
building, since checking a fire in
one of the older buildinge would
have been almost each

‘right to

Strauss Explains
Hobbes, Classical
Absolutist Theory

Goodhart, April 7. “There are
two chief types of absolutism, the
theologic, or divine right idea, and
the philosophic or J lar idea.”
Thus Dr. Leo Straugy , Professor of
Political Science, | ee School for
Social (Research, opened the Mal-
lory \Whiting Webster lecture in
history on “The ‘Classical Theory of
European Absolutism.”

Illustrating the distinct break
into the modern realm of political
thought and science from the me-
dieval ideas of a supreme Pope and
its product of divine right, Dr.
Strauss emphasized Hobbes as the
first to take a modern view on the
absolute state. Hobbes, he points
out, believed that the best political
order was not probable, but poss-
ible, a matter not of planning but
of chance. )

After Machiavelli’s disbelief in
the possibility of the best political
order, philosophers aimed for a
practical political order on the
basis of how man actually acted.
On this basis, a government would
be formed which would be the ser-
vant of its people. Dr. Strauss
pointed out that Hobbes realized
that a natural law can be deduced
from certain self-evident actions
and emotions of man, not reason.
The main emotion is fear of vio-
lent death. Therefore man is jus-
tified in everything he does to
avert death. Man is given absolute
protect himself from
death.

The most distinctive feature of
Hobbes is his liberal theory on the
absolute right of the individual and
the purpose of the state to secure
this right. Dr. Strauss pointed out
that here we find the change from
pre-modern natural right where
emphasis was on duties, to the
modern concept of natural right
which emphasizes rights.

(Peace is a necessary demand of
natural right to avert death, Dr.
Strauss continued. Peace relies on
security and for a government to
be secure, it must be absolute. The
state, by establishing civil order
and peace, limits man’s fear.





Harvard Spends Night in Merion;
Receives and Leaves Billet-Doux

by Cecelia Maccabe, ’50

Thursday afternoon saw _ the
scattering of Merion to the farth-
est reaches of the campus as the
Harvard Glee Club descended to
take over. The Merionites, how-
ever, were reluctant to leave. The
long-awaited new couch and rug
arrived simultaneously with Har-
vard, a strange coincidence, and
they ‘were not to have the pleasure
of breaking them in.

‘When 5.30 arrived they were be-
ginning to make themselves at
home in strange and unfamiliar
surroundings, ranging from Pres-
jdent McBride’s house to the hous-
es of friends in the vicinity. (Miss
McBride’s offer of shelter ‘proved
to be a snare and a delusion. It
has since been disclosed that she
exposed her guests to the measles,
contracted by her maid). Sune

Harvard’s reaction was varied,
as was their welcome. There were
those who found friendly notes gen-

erOwity
ment of food in the event that

than would be desired. They were
met with notes, at appropriate
spots in bureau drawers. ‘Well,”
and “People just don’t do these
things” were among the witty com-
ments. In response to her plea to
please not steal it, one girl found
her choice. Harvard banner. hang-
ing from the ceiling of a room
down the hall which displayed. a
rich collection of Yale banners. A
poster, left over from the Prince-
ton football season, challenging
“Crush the Crimson,” was turned
face to the wall, showing Harvard’s
disgust.

The individual who collects
Scotch bottles, corked with can-
dles of course, found two additions
to her collection. One Harvard
chorister was caught in the act
of announcing, as he left the Hall,
that Merion’s bridge tables were
well adapted to the circulation of
poker chips.

The final touches of Merion hos-
a added. at 9:30 Friday
morning ‘Ghen a dozen girls gath-|
ered. on the front steps p. Serenade



‘These were received with thanks
Don’t ‘ask us what else. . There
‘were others among .the gentlemen
‘who made themselves more at home





44. versus. American Democracy.” ”

Caps and Gavels|k
Are Given Over
In Inauguration

The traditional passing of gav-
els and caps, which symbolizes the
inauguration of the new officers of
the Undergraduate Council, took
place Wednesday, April 2 The
ceremonies were held on “Taylor
Steps,” but due to rain, on the in-
side ones rather than the usual
outside ones.

Meg Urban, outgoing president
of (Undergrad, declared that “It is
the end and the beginning, the end
of the old regime and the begin-
ning of the new.” Reports of the
year for campus organizations have
been placed in the Quita Woodward
Room, she added, where all “Ipso
Factos” may loek at them.

The outgoing and incoming of-
ficers were:

Mary ‘Lee Blakely to Page Hart
—Self4Government Association.

Meg Urban to Helen Burch—
Undergraduate Association.

Helen Poland to Rosamond Kane
—League.

Nancy ‘Bierwirth to Libby Bagley
—Athletic Association.

Alison Barbour to Ning Hitch-
cock—Alliance.

Nancy Morehouse on behalf of
Emily Evarts to Harriet Ward—
College News.

Leach to Lecture
Qn American vs.
Scand. Democracy

Dr. Henry Goddard Leach will
give a lecture in Goodhart Hall,
Monday, April 14 at eight o’clock.
Dr. Leach, the President of the
American-Scandinavian Foundation
and a well-known authority on
Scandinavian literature, will speak
on the subject of Scandinavian ver-
sus ‘American Democracy.

Dr. Leach was the editor of the
Forum and the Century magazines
between 1922 and 1940. He also
spent much of his time lecturing
to American universities and civic
organizations, presenting political,
literary, and educational theories.
Suspending publicatton af the
magazines, Dr. Leach devoted his
full time, at the beginning of the
second World ‘War, to the Ameri-
can-Scandinavian Foundation. This
is an educational institution for
the purpose of advancing intellec-
tual relations between Americans
the Scandinavians. Through Dr.
Leach’s efforts international edu-
cation has been greatly increased.



CALENDAR

Thursday, April 10

7:30 Rhoads Showcase. Bryn
Mawr-Penn debate on Labor
and Management.

8:30 Common Room. Pedro
‘Salinas, “An Hour in Spain”
(in Spanish).
Friday, April 11
9:00-12:00 Gym.
Non-Res Dance.
Saturday, April 12
Open Night at the Gym.
Sunday, April 13

7:30 Music Room. Chapel. Dr.
_Eduard C. Lindeman.

Monday, April 14

8:00 Goodhart. Dr. Henry God-
dard Leach, “Scandinavian

Informal

‘Tuesday, April 16



Harvard Wit a

featuring “You Can Tell a Harvadd
Man” and “Going Back to Nassau
Hall.”

~



“Russia and America,
Strategic Factors. a

per,









4 ee

in the U.S.S.R. He is the author]



oer

Lixistence of God
Proved by Weiss
In New Synthesis

Goodhart, April 1. “The three
traditional proofs for the existence
of God are the teleological, the
cosmological, and the ontological.
Defects can be pointed out in all
of them and we can conclude that
the three of them taken together
prove what you really want: some-
thing supporting the universe con-
cerned with evil and good.” Speak-
ing to a full house of students and
professors, Dr. Paul Weiss, Pro-
fessor of Philosophy at Yale Uni-
versity and former Professor of
Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College,
lectured on God and Evil under the
auspices of the Philosophy Club.

After showing the fallacies in the
most commonly accepted proofs of
God, Dr. Weiss offered an original
proof for the existence of a perfect
Being and then discussed the basic
attributes of God and His relation
to Good and Evil. Dr. Weiss’ proof,
like the cosmological, takes our
own existence as its starting point.
“We are beings in time and as such
facea future.._Our existence _ is
our becoming in that future thus
making it real. At present,”
Dr. Weiss explained, “the future
is abstract; by living we make the
future concrete.” This abstract

A VES.
future constitutes a unity, because
the future is common to all of us.
Unity, in turn, has been accepted
to mean excellence and the good,
since it is a harmony of all possi-
bilities.

Dr. Weiss then demonstrated that
this abstract good which is the un-
ity represnted by the future is not
very good itself. In order to be,
the idea of the good therefrom

must depend on the concrete. It
Continued on Page 2

Salinas to Give

Spanish Lecture

Pedro Salinas, one of the best
of the contemporary Spanish
poets, will speak in the Common
Room Thursday evening, April
10th, at 8:30. His subject will be
“An Hour of Spain,” and will be
presented in Spanish.

Mr. Salinas has been professor
of Spanish language and literature
at the University of Sevilla, the
Sorbonne and at Cambridge Uni-
versity in England. He has been
in the United States since 1936,
and is now professor of Spanish
language and literature at Johns
Hopkins University.

Mr. Salinas is the author of
many books of poetry and literary
criticism, and a poet in his own
right. His work is known for its
lyric quality, for its restraint, in-
tensity and simplicity, and for the
originality of his approach.

Hopper to Deliver
Russia-U S Lecture

Russia and America, Strategic
Factors will be the subject for
Professor Bruce C. Hopper’s lec-
ture at a College Assembly on
Current Affairs on Tuesday, April

| 15, at 12:30 in Goodhart.

Mr. Hopper is Associate Profes-
sor of Government at Harvard
University. During the war he
¥ywas official histori#f. forth-"*~*th
or Force and the observer for the

. nt World. Affairs



of many books on Russia and Rus-
sian foreign policy.



*

BMC, Harvard
Combine For
Lenten Concert

Stravinsky Choruses,
Bach, Gabrieli
Are Sung

By Ellen Harriman, ’48

On Maundy Thursday in Holy
Week, the Bryn Mawr Chorus and
the Harvard Glee Club gave a con-
cert ‘of Lenten music. The pro-
gram presented a_ surprisingly
rich, varied and extensive assort-
ment, from Palestrina to Stravin-
sky, from a Dutch carol to the in-
tricate counterpoint of Mozart.
Harvard and Bryn Mawr combined
in three long choruses—Giovanni
Gabrieli’s In Ecclesiis Benedicite
Domine, Stravinsky’s “Symphonie
Psaumes” and Bach’s “B Minor
Mass.”

The Harvard Glee Club chose
music which, with one exception,
dated from the 16th century or
earlier. Their first, Hasler’s Can-
tate Domino Canticum Novum,
and their second, Nanino’s Diffusa
est gratia, were exquisitely sung
with what seemed to be great co-
operative discipline and apprecia-
tion of their full harmonic quality.

The Supplicationes from Pal-

estrina’s Litany (1598, one of
the most beautiful passages in
church music, was so _ perfectly
sung that it would have made a
concert in itself. The subtly var-
ied repetitions of Ora Pro Nobis
were particularly satisfying.
After the low-keyed mood of
this litany, the Glee Club sang a
15th-Century- Laude, in which the
man’s soprano part was empha-
sized by a voice—or_ voices—gifted
with that rare intense, woodwind
timbre for which such music is in-
tended. Harvard concluded with a
modern Credo by Alexander Grech-
aninov.

Bryn Mawyr’s first two selections,
Continued on Page 4

College Will Send
Delegate to ISS

Bryn Mawr will again have an
opportunity to send a delegate to
the International Student Service
Conference, being held this year
from July 6 to 14, in Aarhus, Den-
mark. The Conference will be fol-
lowed by a six weeks “tour” of
Poland, Czechoslovakia, or Den-
mark and Holland—the country to
be selected by the delegate.

A delegate should be either a
sophomore or a junior, who has a
serious interest in international
cultural activities, and who would
be willing to participate actively
in ISS work on her return. Speak-
ing ability in some foreign lan-
guage is desirable, and a fairly
good understanding of one other
language besides English is essen-
tial. A candidate should also be a
person of sore personal initiative,
who will not be floored by a split-
second jump from an embassy
banquet to a third-elass bomb-
damaged railway coach.

York around June 21, returning by
September 10 at the latest. Cost
of the trip has not been definitely
Lestablished, but will

between $500 and $750. Anyone
tact Naticy “imorenvase, ~

West. Deadline for applications is



April 15.

.

interested. ‘im_applying should con- ”
aa Aas

The delegate will leave New .

somewhere.