Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 1949-02-01

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CHANGES ON THE BOARD OF MANAGERS

Clement Biddle ’96

Edmund G. Robinson ’05

Richard H. McFeely ’27

President Nason recently an­
nounced two changes in the person­
nel of the Board of Managers: the
retirement of Clement Biddle ’96,
of Bronxville, N. Y. and the election
of Richard H. McFeely ’27, principal
of George School in Bucks County,
Pa., as an Alumni M anager replac­
ing Edmund G. Robinson ’05.
A member of the Biddle family
has served on the Board of Managers
continuously since its organization
in 1864. W ith his retirement, Mr.
Biddle himself brings to a close a
long and distinguished term of serv­
ice; however, he retains the privi­
leges of an emeritus member. Past
president of the Biddle Purchasing
Company of New York City, he is
now a member of the executive com­

mittee of the American Friends
Service Committee and of the board
of Pendle Hill, a Quaker graduate
center for religious study.
Mr. Robinson who was associated
with the du Pont Co. from his
graduation from Swarthmore until
his retirement last July, was ap­
pointed to its board of directors
in 1937. As a member of the Board
of Managers, he served on the nom­
inating and finance committees. He
also worked on the campaign execu­
tive committee in 1946-7 and on the
special gifts committee in 1947-8; he
is currently a member of the science
foundation committee.
Mr. McFeely first came to Swarth­
more as a student in 1923. As an

undergraduate, he was a top student
in history and economics and a stellar performer in football and lacrosse. He suffered an attack of
infantile paralysis while playing a
football game for the Garnet. Seeking recovery at Warm Springs, Ga.,
he met Nancy Watson, a physical
therapist, whom he later married.
They have two children, Richard, Jr.
and Marjorie.
McFeely served as assistant dean
at Swarthmore for two years and
was appointed to George School’s
faculty in 1931. He was named
principal of that school last year,
after having served as headmaster
of Friends Central School in Over­
brook, Pa., for three years.

ALUMNI FUND SCORE BOARD

Gifts Received

No. of

Amount

Average

Contributors

Contributed

Gift

T ime’s-a-Wastin’

%

fflËÊ 1

Participation

512

$ 1 4 ,9 6 4 .1 4

$ 29 .22

220

5 ,34 2.8 2

24.3 9

Total

732

$ 2 0 ,3 0 6 .9 6

27.74

w

•r

o
Q

Leading Class
By Total Gifts

6 .1 1 %

1899
( 1 4 .8 1 % )

1907
($1,250.00)

2 .6 3 %

1907
( 1 1 .7 6 % )

1907
($961.59)

8 .7 4 %

1899
( 1 8 .5 1 % )

1907
$2,211.59

SEPT.

In January

By %
Participation

— —

To December 31

Leading Class

*

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"DOWN UNDER" WITH DELLMUTH
Greetings from the Swarthmore
Club of Australia! We held our first
meeting late in October and every
Swarthmorean on this continent was
present. The three of us had a m ar­
velous time. M arjorie Fish ’27 was
elected president, since she will be
here for the next 18 months working
for the Sydney Occupational T rain­
ing Center. W ith two Australians
now in college, this antipodean club
seems headed for a brilliant future.
In discussing plans for our sab­
batical, we picked Australia for its
natural attractions and its distance.
We reasoned that people would not
have heard about Swarthmore, thus
providing an opportunity for relaxa­
tion from College problems. How
wrong we were in supposing that
our hometown, “Swarthmore, Penn­
sylvania,” would provoke no par­
ticular interest or comment! From
the time we started our motor trip
across America—not excluding the
memorable journey aboard the now
defunct M arine P hoenix ( Editor’s
note: one of those extinct birds) —
we have been answering the seem­
ingly inevitable question, “Do you
know John Doe who attended
Swarthmore in 1928?”
Immediately after we landed in
Australia we began to meet friends
of Swarthmore friends. In Brisbane
we got well acquainted with one of
Bill Poole’s Oxford classmates, now
head of the departm ent of French
at Queens University. O f the dozens
of Rhodes Scholars we have met
since then, most of them seem to
know Frank Aydelotte and a variety
of other Swarthmoreans, while many
of them have A n A dventure in
Education ( Macmillan, 1941) on
their bookshelves.
In Sydney we had many enjoy­
able visits with Chrissie Seaman,
widow of W. Laurie Seaman ’15
and mother of Bruce and Laurie Jr.,
both now in college. We had tea
with Constance Butler, sister-in-law
of Prof. Harold M arch, and met
many friends of Tom Brown ’29 and
Betty Strong ’39, both of whom
made distinguished records here
during the war. Later we had a nice
visit with Andy Simpson’s sister-inlaw, wife of the new First Secretary
to the U. S. Embassy. One of the

f

Carl K. Dellmuth ’31

highlights of our Canberra stay was
the reading of the H ansard R ecord
(Australia’s Congressional Record)
in which Swarthmore College is
eulogized by Senator Lamp for “in­
troducing Australian football into
America” and for “this genuine ex­
pression of international goodwill.”
In Melbourne we saw three of
the Australian officers who visited
the campus during our wartime
Allied Officer Week-ends, met a
chap who won an Open Scholar­
ship in 1935 but turned it down be­
cause H arvard offered twice the
stipend, read a front page item about
the S. S. Swarthmore Victory, and
were coerced into delivering several
speeches on Coeducation at Swarth­
more. This is how we have managed
not to get involved in College
affairs!
All the letters from home ask
our impressions of the country and
people. Australia is slightly larger
than the United States, although its
population is no greater than that
of the City of New York. About
65 per cent of the people live in six
m ajor cities, with the largest con­
centration in the southeast. The
climate? Ideal — except for the
winter months when the lack of
central heating does bring woolen
undies out of mothballs. Although
winter sports are common in the
Australian Alps, freezing tempera­
tures are seldom recorded in the
large cities. Outdoor tennis is played
all year ’round and the beaches are

in use nine months of the year.
Australians are definitely an out­
door people. They are a hospitable
people, too, and in our experience
they treat Americans like brothers.
Food is abundant but not much
cheaper than American food, except
in the case of meat and dairy prod­
ucts. Prime steaks never sell for
more than 32c per pound. A nice
five lb. leg of lamb costs about one
dollar. Choice calves’ liver goes beg­
ging at ten cents a pound. Milk is
11c per quart, butter 34c a pound
and fine cheeses about 35c a pound.
O ur son, Terry, has gained 14
pounds in three months.
Australia, however, has economic
problems, arising chiefly from her
dependence on primary products as
a source of wealth. “Australia rides
on a sheep’s back” is no mere cliché.
She is guarding against a fall in
world demand—and price—for wool
and wheat by emphasizing popula­
tion and industrial expansion. A
member of the sterling block, Aus­
tralia must resist for the present the
tempting output of the dollar coun­
tries.
On the political front, the Labor
Party is the dominant power, al­
though a Liberal-Country Party co­
alition promises to provide stiff com­
petition at next year’s federal
election. Prime Minister Chifley’s
government has passed thorough
social legislation over conservative
opposition. Most of the Labor Party’s
grief stems from powerful Com­
munist union influence in several
key industries. The result is absen­
teeism and slowed-down production.
Despite this situation, it is difficult
to picture Australia as a Communist
nation.
From a personal standpoint it is
impossible for us to restrain our en­
thusiasm. Australia simply has ex­
ceeded our fondest expectations.
W hat we miss most are Swarthmore,
our American friends and families
and our washing machine. However,
“Chester Road, Swarthmore” will
soon again be our mailing address.
We will return forever grateful to
the person who invented sabbatical
leaves, because our lives have been
made infinitely richer with new and
interesting experiences.
Carl K. D ellmuth ’31

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NEWS FROM NEW YORK
In what bids to be its most active
year, the New York Swarthmore
Alumnae Club has been sponsoring
parties, meetings, and d i n n e r s
throughout the area from Connec­
ticut to New Jersey.
U nder the enthusiastic leadership
of its President, Mrs. Betty Jones
Barnard ’20, Vice President Elsie
Williams ’33 and Secretary-Treas­
urer Helen Spencer ’42, the Club is
growing rapidly.
A tea held early in September for
the incoming freshmen women from
the area proved so successful that
the Club plans another in 1949.
O n December 4, 1948 Norris T9
and Betty Jones Barnard entertained
a group of New Jersey Alumni at
their home in Westfield, N. J. At­
tending were: Mr. & Mrs. Evan
Beecher (K atharine White ’37), Jo­
seph Bender ’39, Mr. & Mrs. Ellis
Bishop ’28 (Helen Robison ’29),
Mr. & Mrs. George Booth ’27 (Eliz­
abeth Bartleson ’26), Mr. & Mrs.
Lewis F. Buckman (Nella Arnold
’24), Richard Chambers ’48, Mr. &
Mrs. Robert Decker ’47, Mr. & Mrs.
John S. Donal ’26, Mr. & Mrs. Bar­
ton L. Jenks, Jr. ’45 (Jane Reppert
’44), John W. Kelly ’45, Mr. & Mrs.
Robert Lewis ’35 (M argaret Bill

’38), Mr. & Mrs. H. W. McDowell
(R uth Henderson ’36), Mr. & Mrs.
Harold Douglas Merrill, Jr. (R uth
Feely ’38), John Schott (N ), Ann
Reppert, Mr. & Mrs. John Skelly
(Ethel Means ’20), Mr. & Mrs.
Richard Thompson ’26.
November 5 th, Virginia Sites ’40
had another group of New Jersey
Alumni at her home in South
Orange.
The same evening Charlotte
Bunting Green ’20 and M r. Green
of Ridgewood, N. J. entertained
Doris English ’40, Gladys Pell ’20,
and R uth Ennis Sawyer ’26.
A Westchester and Connecticut
party given on November 6th by
Mr. & Mrs. Boyd Brown ’21 (Janet
Young ’21), and Mr. & Mrs. Payson G. Gates (Elizabeth Moffitt ’28)
at the Browns in Scarsdale brought
out Peg Newell ’45, Benjamin Burdsall ’25, Ellen McKeon ’37, Mr.
& Mrs. Dudley Gilbert (Es White
’27), Robert Derecktor ’43, Mr. &
Mrs. Herbert C. Mode ’24, Dr. &
Mrs. Don Hamilton ’29 (Jnlia
Kehew ’29), Robert King ’44, Mr.
& Mrs. Robert Bell (Barbara Shaw
’39), Mr. & Mrs. A. S. Packer
(Katherine Mode ’27), Mrs. Betty
Brooks Corrigan ’27, Mr. & Mrs.

J. C. Hill ’35, (R uth M ary Lewis
’37), Mr. & Mrs. Charles Loeb ’37.
The W alter E. Smiths T7 (Anna
Miller T 5 ), East Williston, L. I.,
had an open house for many of the
Long Island Alumni. Those present
were: Eliza K. Willets, ’93, Mrs.
Grace Stevenson Chapm an ’97, Mrs.
Edward M. Lapham , Mrs. Caroline
Jackson Hicks ’92, Miss Marietta
Hicks ’97, Miss Grace Hicks, Mrs.
Esther Hicks Emory ’24, Mr. & Mrs.
Arthur W. Post (Ethel Albertson
TO), Lydia T. Hicks ’25, Mrs. Anna
Seaman Hicks ’06, Mr. & Mrs. Fred
W. Seaman TO, Mr. & Mrs. Robert
Bell (Barbara Shaw ’39), Mr. &
Mrs. Leon A. Rushmore, Jr. ’31
(Caroline Jackson ’31), Mr. & Mrs.
Curtis R. Henderson (Jean Mac­
Gregor ’37), Mr. & Mrs. Edwin M.
Bush ’20 (Ida Meigs ’20), Mr. &
Mrs. Wm. H. Seaman ’88 (Mar­
garet Laurie ’89), Gertrude W. Yarnall ’24, Mrs. M eta Yarnall Fow ’22,
Phebe Seaman T9, M arion Hoag
’20, Joseph Sickler ’20, M r. & Mrs.
Alex T. M acN utt (Betty Huey ’27),
Mr. & Mrs. W alter T. W hite (Mar­
garet Rusk ’40), Mr. & Mrs. Roger
A. Frost ’42 (Phyllis Lohr ’44), Mr.
& Mrs. Victor Streit (M ary WhitContinued on Pape 10

COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS ON HOMECOMING
The following letter was sent
to John Nason shortly after the
extended visit of the A lum ni
Council to Swarthmore last
fall.
My three-day, pre-Homecoming
Day visit confirmed a growing con­
viction that education at Swarth­
more is now doing a sound job of
developing young minds to meet
practical problems as well as pro­
viding its students with necessary
facts and information.
This is the chief single conclusion
that results from sitting in classes,
participating in seminars, and talk­
ing informally with faculty and stu­
dents. T he all-round m aturity of
the average student seems to me
definitely above that of my day. I
see more evidence that the higher
average intelligence has brought
with it greater all-round, extra­

curricular abilities than to the con­
trary. (Excluding the small minority
of my time who were expected to do
little except play football, I think
the present gang could probably
outrassle us in general even if our
ages were equal.)
In three separate ’classroom areas,
I was impressed with teaching which
definitely leads the students to evalu­
ate textbook statements and theory
—m ot merely to accept it. In each
case, they were being taught how to
use their minds as effective tools in
approaching and solving problems.
Since that seems to me the chief
thing to be gained from a liberal
arts education, I am naturally, very
favorably impressed . . . I am p ar­
ticularly enthusiastic about the ap­
plication of these teaching methods
as exemplified by Willis D. W eather­
ford in the labor economics area.

Having no children of my own to
qualify me as an expert, I leave to
others reaction and comment on the
boy-meets-girl angles which appear
so strongly in the minds of some
alumni and alumnae. W ith allow­
ances made for universal changes
in attitude, it looks to me that now,
as in ye olden time, the student
body itself is tending, by the attitude
of its leaders, to impose necessary
restraints.
As one experienced in group dis­
cussion and group activities, I found
the clarity of presentation and lack
of non sequiturs throughout these
three Swarthmore days a refreshing
interlude from normal rounds.
If the Alumni Council is invited
to make a similar visit next year, I
shall certainly want to be there.
N orman G. S hidle 111

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THIS IS PREXY'S SECRETARY
For twenty-two years students,
members of the faculty, parents and
scores of other callers have stood
with a variety of feelings in the
outer office before the keeper of the
President.
For twenty-two years, although
Frank Aydelotte and John Nason
have occupied the President’s chair
at Swarthmore College, its presence
has been jealously guarded by a
slight but tremendously effective
woman named Emma Abbett.
Emma Abbett is Secretary to the
President. At Swarthmore that
means receptionist, switchboard op­
erator, stenographer, typist, social
secretary, information center, keeper
of official detail, guard of a thous­
and professional secrets and general
factotum. Lately, with her new­
fangled sound-scriber beside her,
Emma looks like an engineer per­
forming mysterious functions with
buttons, microphones, turntables and
other weird mechanical devices.
She is one of the unsung person­
alities of the campus. W ith great
determination Emma daily plows
through a prodigious mass of work.
Probably the most fitting tribute to
her extraordinary capacity is the
complete competence with which
she has met the exacting require­
ments of two very voluble presi­
dents.
In one morning Emma may:
(a) put in calls to the secretaries
of three political figures in an effort
to secure speakers for a Cooper
Foundation series; (b) make ap-

Emma Abbett and Lydia Baer
in their garden

pointments with the college architect
and several faculty members to dis­
cuss plans for a new building; (c)
type out arrangements for a research
contract between the Office of Naval
Research and a Swarthmore depart­
m ent; (d) call off a scheduled com­
mittee meeting; (e) type announce­
ments to be made by John Nason
in Collection; (f) prepare material
for the next meeting of the Board
of Managers; (g) search the base­
ment archives (which she alone un­
derstands) for data needed in the
settlement of a bequest.
H er biggest occupational hazard
is the extremes in personalities and
problems with which she must con­
stantly deal. Never does one job
reach completion without interrup­
tion. The volume of the President’s
correspondence (some 10,000 letters
a year) keeps her on the job from
8:30 until well after five, in spite
of the help she receives. Emma is
often cleaning up details on week­
ends or holidays. In fact, whether
by fate or by design, she lived for
many years just behind the Presi­
dent’s home, almost literally on
twenty-four hour call for the irre­
pressible Aydelotte.
There are few, if any, on the
campus today who have so intimate
and broad a knowledge of Swarth­
more College. Having been on the
inside of every im portant develop­
ment at the college for more than
two decades, she is a virtual walking
archive for official Swarthmore.
John Nason says, “No doubt it
would have been possible for me to
carry on my duties without Emma
Abbett, but it would have been
vastly more difficult. At the begin­
ning there were a thousand and one
things to be learned. Quietly and
tactfully, Emma instructed me in all
of them. She continues to surprise
me with her accumulated knowledge
of all that has happened at the col­
lege. I shudder sometimes to think
of the wrong decisions from which
she has saved me, not to mention
the endless hours of investigation
and inquiry.
“This account would not be
complete without reference to her
efficiency and discretion. No confi­

Emma Abbett

dential subject has ever ‘leaked’
from her office. No one could have
been more loyal to the best interests
of the college.”
T hat is Emma Abbett, the keeper
of presidents. W hat is Emma Ab­
bett, the woman? Called “Miss
Rabbit” (of the Brer’ Rabbits) by
her very closest friends, she is warm,
gracious, talented and fiercely loyal.
A natural combination of reticence
and dignity establishes the tone of
her relationships, be they profes­
sional or private. W hat too few
people have enjoyed are her un­
guarded moments of rollicking good
humor. They would discover that
she and her life-long friend, Lydia
Baer, one of our professors of Ger­
man, are two of the most delight­
ful people on the campus. Arsenic
and old-lacy-like.
Emma and Lydia are almost an
institution. Neither gives any vis­
ible indication of having overlooked
many im portant things in life. Be­
fore 1927 Emma somehow managed
to move in and out of eighteen dif­
ferent quarters on campus, includ­
ing Wharton. Then came Lydia.
Perhaps it was her influence and
perhaps it was simply an alleviation
of the housing problem—at any rate
they moved in on each other, first
in W orth’s “gold-fish bowl”, then
in the garage apartm ent which the
Continued on Page 10

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SUMMER SUCCESS STORY
(The following is a digest of an
article by William G. Avirett, E du­
cation Editor of the N ew Y ork
H erald-T ribune about the ColbySwarthmore Sum m er School of
Languages. I t appeared in that
paper on August 22, 1948—Ed.)
M aine’s first summer school for
languages, sponsored jointly by
Colby and Swarthmore Colleges,
ended here last week with both stu­
dents and faculty astonished by their
progress in the seven-week session.
T he combination of Yankee in­
genuity and Quaker thoroughness,
plus the bracing air of the Kennebec
Valley, achieved an unusual concen­
tration, apparently without the usual
monotony.
To this observer . . . one more
proof has been added to the strong
case for language study in the sum­
mer. At any time, a student will
make rapid progress in one course
when free from the demands of
other courses and from the distrac­
tions of campus life. In the case of
foreign languages, this argument has
particular force.
Certainly, if “concentration with­
out monotony” was the aim, the con­
centration was attained. Courses
were offered in French, German,
Russian and Spanish, and a full year
of college work, with thorough text­
book study and supplementary in­
struction, was covered by each stu­
dent in the seven weeks.
This was done by having classes
meet three times each morning, plus
appointments with faculty members
for conferences and individual atten­
tion, plus time for practicing alone
and for preparing classes. In the
afternoons groups of two or three,
in dungarees, shorts or sun suits,
were scattered over the lawns or in
the shade of the pines and elms.
Although conversation has not
been overstressed, it did provide the
link which held each day together.
T he language was used at the table,
on the way to class, and in the cas­
ual give and take. “We even play
tennis in French,” one student said.
Another device which proved useful
was to have a Thursday holiday in­
stead of Saturday. This mid-week
break m eant not only an initial

Language practice continued through the
meal hours as shown by this table of Ger­
man students breaking into a Bavarian folk­
song.
Left to right: W illiam D. Reeder
(Union College), Long Island City, N. Y .;
Prof. W illiam Frey, Franklin and Marshall
College; Marie G. Lukens (Bryn Mawr), Phila­
delphia, Pa.; and Patricia Ripley (Bryn
Mawr), New York, N. Y.

three-day period at full speed but
also a Friday-and-Saturday renewal
of energy.
The singing of folk songs has
proved to be an effective device for
teaching classes informally. At the
closing outdoor “Gesangfest” of the
German group, more than thirty old
tunes—from “Lorelei” to “Krambambuli”—followed the compelling
guitar strummed by J. William Frey,
head of the German departm ent of
Franklin and Marshall College. Al­
though the process of eating-drinking-dreaming a language is m anda­
tory in some schools, the compact
size of the summer school here made
it possible to get results without
insistent regulations.
Entertainments began with an In ­
ternational Night. There ensued a
Spanish night with a two-man bull
and notable toreador, a French
night in a M ontm artre bistro with
apaches, a German night in a
“gemeutlichen Weinstube,” and a
Russian night which produced “the
most vigorous dancing ever seen in
the State of M aine.”
Students say that the school must
be continued next summer but that
its enrollment should not exceed 150.
Careful assignment of rooms in
advance permitted students taking
the same course to be together in
the dormitories. The faculty also

Individual Instruction with the Tape Re­
corder— Ann Leonard (Smith College) and
Professor Andre* Malécot (Haverford School).

lived in the dormitories with the
students.
The faculty was selected not only
for academic competence but also
with an eye to skill in “outside ac­
tivities” such as music.
“The informal relationship be­
tween student and teacher is very
im portant,” Professor McCoy (of
Colby) said. “W hen students get to
know an instructor outside of class,
they loosen up inside and find all
kinds of things to talk about.”
Asked how he liked continuous
teaching, one instructor replied:
“They are really wonderful, these
students . . . After twenty-six years
of teaching, I tell you it is an
inspiration.”
The 108 students came from 20
states, Hawaii and China; they rep­
resented 46 colleges and several
secondary schools. Yale and Swarth­
more had the largest delegations, fol­
lowed by Colby, Smith, Bryn Mawr
and Ohio State. The average gain
in weight during the seven weeks
was eight pounds.

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ASSURING SWARTHMORE'S FUTURE
by the results of its initial conversa­
tions with the trust officers of some
of our eastern banks and trust com­
panies. It has reason to believe that
in years ahead financial assistance
from this source will increase.

Most colleges depend upon be­
quests as an im portant source of
income. Recent estimates show that
over half of the total gifts to a col­
lege normally come from this source.
During the last twenty-five years at
Swarthmore, however, bequests have
accounted for $681,312.32—approx­
imately twelve per cent of the total
increase in endowment since 1923.
Faced with these facts, the alumni,
with the hearty approval of the
Board of Managers, have established
a permanent Committee on Bequests
which will have three primary jobs.
The first is to encourage our alumni
or alumnae and friends to provide
for Swarthmore College under trusts,
by life insurance, or in their wills;
the second, to develop new friends
who might become interested in pro­
viding for the College; and the third,
to discover existing bequests whose
distribution is still under the control
of trust officers.
The Chairm an of this Committee
is Claude C. Smith, Vice Chairm an
of the Board of Managers, and a
member of the Class of 1914. O ther
members of this committee to which
others are to be added are:
George B. Clothier, ’26 Vice
Chairman
Raymond K. Denworth ’l l
Wayland H. Elsbree ’21
Jess Halsted ’18
A. Sidney Johnson, Jr. ’27
Howard Cooper Johnson ’96
Nicholas Kelley— Member of
Board of Managers
William Poole ’30
Ellis B. Ridgway, Jr. ’34
Theodore Widing ’28
Charles Alfred Zinn ’25
This Committee on Bequests is
already in operation. It is enlisting
many of our alumni or alumnae in
various parts of the country as as­
sociate members, thereby establish­
ing a nation-wide network of
lawyers, trust officers, life insurance

While the responsibility for this
effort is centralized on the Commit­
tee on Bequests and a large share
of the work will be done by the as­
sociate members throughout the
country, all our alumni and alumnae
should give careful thought to their
own estate programs in this regard
and should be ready at all times to
encourage others to make provision
under trusts, by life insurance, or in
their wills for Swarthmore College.
Claude C. Smith ’14

experts and interested friends. Each
of these committee members and as­
sociates are being provided with a
special booklet, “Assuring Swarthmore’s Future”, prepared for the
particular work of this Committee.
The activities of these members and
associate members will be directed
toward the accomplishment of the
three purposes mentioned above.
They will actively seek out existing
funds, part or all of which might
be directed to Swarthmore College.
They will be conversant with the
specific needs of the College so as
to capitalize on any opportunities
presented to them or of which they
may learn.
This is a permanent and long-run
operation, the results of which may
not become very apparent for some
time to come. However, the Com­
mittee is encouraged by the indica­
tions it has already received of plans
for making provision for Swarth­
more College in the trusts or wills
of a number of our alumni or alum­
nae. Many of these prospective pro­
visions or bequests are very generous
and will help to assure the future
financial stability of Swarthmore.
The Committee is also encouraged

Members of the Committee and
administrative officers of the College
stand ready to give information and
assistance to anyone desiring to make
provision for the College.
Any provision made for Swarth­
more College is a “perpetual act of
faith” . Accordingly, the Committee
on Bequests, facing the New Year
and other New Years to come for
Swarthmore, has adopted the fol­
lowing statement of her President,
John W. Nason:
"A college is a perpetual act of
faith. For education is an adven­
ture in the realm of the spirit. It
is an exploration of the possibili­
ties of human beings for a larger
and better life. The Quaker
founders of Swarthmore College
had faith in their vision. Every­
one who has contributed to
Swarthmore’s growth has had
faith in its performance. Every
student who enters the college has
faith, whether he or she recog­
nizes it or not, that the struggle
and the adventure will be worth
the effort. Every teacher lives in
the faith that each student will
catch his enthusiasm, will glimpse
a wider vista of the possibilities
of human life, and will go forth
a better person.”

th e

garnet

letter

MEMO ON ADMISSIONS
The following memorandum
about a subject of considerable
concern to alumni is reprinted
here exactly as it went to the
Board of Managers last fall.
M emorandum No. 12
November 15, 1948
To Members of the
Board of Managers:
It is very im portant for members
of the Board to know the college,
and these memoranda are one de­
vice for helping toward that end.
Another method is to minimize so
far as possible the routine business
of the Board meetings in order to
devote more time to discussion of
broad issues of policy. Still a third
way is to invite from time to time
to Board or Executive Committee
meetings members of the administra­
tion and faculty to discuss some fea­
ture of the college’s operations. This
third avenue was followed at the
meeting of the Executive Committee
on November 4. At the end of offi­
cial business the two deans were
invited in to present brief statements
about various aspects of admissions
and to answer questions from mem­
bers of the Board.
D ean C obbs emphasized the
problems created by the number of
women applicants. For the past
three years these have run :
1946— 1278 applicants
1947— 1337 applicants
1948— 1205 applicants
T he reasons most frequently given
by high school and preparatory
school students for wishing to at­
tend Swarthmore are:
1. They want a small coeduca­
tional college in the east.
2. They want as good an aca­
demic training as can be had
in the best eastern institutions.
3. They are attracted to Swarth­
more because it is Quaker, co­
educational, and known for
its high standards and fine
graduates.
T he work of “processing” each ap­
plicant has become extremely heavy,
both because of the numbers and
because each applicant must be
treated individually. Here is a brief

summary of the steps followed in a
normal case:
1. Answer request for application
card and catalogue.
2. Acknowledgment of applica­
tion.
3. Letter in the fall asking for
further information.
4. Acknowledgment of answer
both to applicant and to
school.
5. Acknowledgment of all recom­
mendations.
6. Interviews with as many appli­
cants as possible, last year over
600.
7. Summary of each applicant
who takes college board tests
for the information of the
committee.
8. Final notice to each applicant.
9. Miscellaneous correspondence
with applicant.
O f the 1205 applicants last year
645 were seriously considered. These
fell into three groups:
215. .. .in top group of which 126
were accepted.
200. .. .in middle group of which 23
were accepted.
1 9 5 . . . . in third group of which 4
were accepted.
3 5 . . . . late applications of which 1
was accepted.
645
154
Of the 154 accepted 104 entered
Swarthmore this fall. O f 39 daugh­
ters of alumni and Friends, 29 were
accepted and 19 entered college.
The division of applicants into dif­
ferent groups is based on intellec­
tual ability and promise, high school
records, personality and character
as determined through personal in­
terviews and letters of reference, and
diversity of extra-curricular activities
and interests. In making its selec­
tion the committee further considers
diversity of background and especi­
ally geographical spread.
D ean H u nt discussed various
criticisms frequently made of the
college’s policy on admissions, pri­
marily as these criticisms applied to
the selection of men.

The most frequently heard criti­
cism is that too many sons of alumni

and Friends are rejected and too few
well rounded men are admitted. The
committee has attem pted to admit
on a noncompetitive basis all sons
of Friends and alumni who seem
to have a reasonable chance of
graduation.
Mistakes
naturally
occur, but to carry out this policy
without any mistakes would require
superhuman judgment. A study was
made of the 120 sons of alumni and
Friends adm itted from 1944-47. Ten
of these graduated in June; 25 are
in college with a B-C average, 34
are doing work of the lower gradu­
ation average, while 14 have records
definitely below standard and must
improve their work markedly if they
are to graduate. Of the number
who have left Swarthmore, 7 were
in good standing and left voluntarily
for more specialized professional
training; 7 left with a minimum
average, 7 with a lower than gradu­
ation average; 2 dropped out with
failing work before any grades were
recorded, and 14 were dropped by
the Commitee on Records for un­
satisfactory work. O f the 120, 83
or 69% did or are doing satisfactory
work; 37 or 31% did or are doing
unsatisfactory work.
As to the extra-curricular records,
the committee found th at a somewhat smaller proportion of these
men participated in athletics, and
that fewer were active in other aspects of campus life.
It is obvious that the admissions
policy must be geared to the academic standards of the college. It is
no use adm itting students who have
to be dropped for poor work, and
it is not a healthy experience for a
student to struggle so hard to main­
tain a minimum record that he has
not time for a normal extra-cur­
ricular life.
The question then arises as to
whether Swarthmore standards are
too high. O ur standards are largely
the resultant of similar standards in
other colleges, of the demands of
professional schools for achievement,
and of severer competition for places
in college. If we compare the Col­
lege Board scores made by our en­
tering freshmen with those made by
( Continued on N ext Page)

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9

WRESTLERS OFF TO GOOD START
by Phil Swayne ’52

Equipped with a new coach and
a new plastic m at cover, Swarthmore’s wrestling team is off to a fly­
ing start this season. The first match
of 1949, against P.M.C., produced
a 33-2 triumph.
Coach Bob Bach, who recently
replaced Ben Kennedy as head of
the Garnet wrestlers, comes to
Swarthmore from Dartmouth. An
outstanding wrestler in high school
and college, Bach received his coach­
ing experience under unusual cir­
cumstances. While he was a mem­
ber of the D artm outh team in 1947,
the coach of the squad took his de­
parture, leaving the Big Green with­
out a mentor. Bob Bach took over
and did a splendid job. Swarthmore
took notice, and when Ben Kennedy
left, Bach was named as his suc­
cessor.
Veteran and novice grapplers
alike have learned much from Bach
since his advent to Swarthmore. Of
the eight varsity regulars, three have
never wrestled before: all three gave
good accounts of themselves in the
opening m atch and are showing
constant improvement. The new­
comers are R alph Cheyney (128
lbs.) of Media, Pa.; Phil Brickner
(175 lbs.) of New York; and Evans
Burn (heavyweight) of Wallingford,
Pa., son of M ary Harvey Burn ’16.

Standing, I. to r., P. Brown, Carrick, Craver, Brickner, Hill, T. Brown, Burn, Sutton, Ruhl.
2nd Row, Battin, Shaffner, Cheyney, Ramsey. Bottom Row, Spangler (mgr.), Sumner, Harrington,
Fusaro leapt.), Heberle, Swayne, Bach (coach).

The more experienced wrestlers,
Capt. Ben Fusaro (136 lbs.) of
Philadelphia; Ken Ruhl (165 lbs.)
of Northfield, Mass.; Bob Shaffner
(145 lbs.), son of Elizabeth Jackson Shaffner T3, of Birmingham,
Mich.; Phil Swayne (155 lbs.), son
of Norman W. ’08 and Amelia Wer­
ner Swayne T4, of Newtown, Pa.;
and Robb Taylor (121 lbs.) of
Towson, Md., were all impressive
against their P.M.C. opponents.
The junior varsity team is fast

getting into shape and feature such
talent as Avery Harrington, son of
Avery Draper Harrington ’22, of
Drexel Hill, Pa. ; Bob Brown, son
of Herbert Brown T6, of Drexel Hill,
Pa.; Ike Battin, son of Isaac L. ’25
and Marjorie Onderdonk Battin ’23,
of Madison, N. J.; Jeff Griest, son of
Frederic E. Griest ’04, of Flora Dale,
Pa.; Dave Ramsey, son of Elizabeth
Burton Ramsey ’09, of Philadelphia;
and Tyner Brown, son of M arian
Simons Brown T5, of Swarthmore.

M E M O O N A D M IS S IO N S — Continued fr o m Page 8

freshmen entering Harvard, Yale,
Princeton, Amherst, Wesleyan, Wil­
liams, we find th at we are roughly
in the middle of the group.
If we decide arbitrarily to lower
the standard, then we run into dif­
ficulties w i t h the professional
schools. O ur pre-medicals will not
be accepted by medical schools, our
engineers cannot enter M IT or Cal
Tech graduate schools, the lawyers
cannot go to the better law schools.
In the natural sciences, the chemists
and physicists must take the national
tests which quickly indicate when a
college is falling below a profes­
sional level.
It is sometimes suggested that our
guidance facilities are inadequate.
Each underclassman has a faculty
adviser. The deans report to the ad­

viser when a student is in difficulty
and frequently add their own advice.
Athletic teams have their own ad­
visers and are informed whenever
a member of the squad is in diffi­
culty. There are student advisers
who are proctors in the dormitory
and.w ho are informed of students
needing help. Furthermore there is
psychiatric counseling.
As to the criticism that there are
not enough well-rounded men,
Dean H unt gave an analysis of the
freshman boys which showed the
variety of their achievements. He
stated that activities on the campus
are flourishing, and that all athletic
teams are winning their share of vic­
tories except for football.
He then spoke of the competi­
tion among institutions for the well-

rounded men. After letters of ac­
ceptance were sent out last May, a
number of men went to competing
colleges, in many instances because
they were offered larger scholarships.
The admissions committee had in­
vestigated the financial resources of
all scholarship applicants, and where
the family income seemed sufficient,
the scholarships were not granted;
but in many cases the same appli­
cants went elsewhere on large
scholarships. This loss, however,
Dean H unt felt the college should
be prepared to accept, though he
stated clearly that if present college
costs remain as they are, scholarship
aid will have to be substantially in­
creased for those individuals really
needing assistance.
J ohn W. N ason .

the

10

garnet

letter

Says Frank Aydelotte
I have known Emma Abbett and
counted her as a friend for thirty
years. I first met her in Washington
in 1918. I was then a professor of
English at M .I.T. on leave to the
War Department to direct a course
on the Issues of the War, which was
first given to soldiers training for
technical services and later in all col­
leges and universities in the country
which maintained units of the
S.A.T.C. The secretarial work in my
office (especially my own work) was
difficult and exacting, and it was
not until Emma Abbett was assigned
to me that I realized that my secre­
tarial problem was solved.
In 1918 I began also to act as
American Secretary for the Rhodes
Scholarships, which had been inter­
rupted during the war and were now
to be revived. The first task was the
administration of “Responsions”— an
elementary examination in Latin and
Greek then required of all candidates
and given in various centers all
over the country. Emma took all
this in her stride, although it meant
that work was going on in my
office on many of these hot sum­
mer days in Washington until
eleven o’clock at night. When I re­
turned to M .I.T. in 1919 I per­
suaded Emma Abbett to go with
me as my secretary, and there for
the next two or three years, we
worked out together the plans for
the administration of the American
Rhodes Scholarships.
When I went to Swarthmore as
president in 1921 I think I should
have been compelled to give up
the Rhodes Scholarships if Emma
had not been willing to go with me
to take charge of the Rhodes
Scholarship office. This she ran with
her usual intelligence and efficiency
until a few years later I moved her
across the hall to the President s

PREXY’S SECRETARY
Continued from Page 5
college built for them and later into
their own home in Wallingford.
Carrying a heavy schedule of
work, entertainment, study and
travel they outgrew their Swarth­
more apartm ent in 1937. Chiefly
responsible was the appearance of
Witzernpitzel von Brillig, the dach­
shund with a personality. Three
personalities plus an overflow of
Lydia’s books proved too formidable
for a garage apartm ent. Reasoning,
then, th at since nine out of ten busi­
ness men began on a shoestring they

office, where she has been ever
since. She had made herself so im­
portant to the orderly administra­
tion of Swarthmore College that
when I moved to Princeton in 1940
there could be no question of tak­
ing her along. T hat would have
been black treason. I was too much
interested in the success of the new
president of Swarthmore even to
suggest it. Meanwhile I got hold
of Elsa Jenkins for the Rhodes
Scholarship office, so that John
Nason and I were both happy.
Any man in my walk of life^ is
very dependent upon his secretaries.
For precisely that reason it has al­
ways seemed to me that a secre­
tarial career offers a wonderful op­
portunity to do worthwhile work in
the world, provided the individual
in question has the needed skill and
intelligence and provided, also, that
she has the required character, in­
itiative and sense of responsibility.
All this adds up to the statement
that she must be a person who
thinks for herself. Emma Abbett
does this. Every once in a while,
when I signed my letters at the end
of the afternoon and left the office,
I would find on my return the next
morning some letter duly signed but
not mailed, with a brief note from
Emma attached, to the effect that
she thought I might like to think
this particular letter over a little
before I sent it.
This is just one illustration of the
qualities which have enabled Emma
Abbett to take an important part
in the development of the Rhodes
Scholarships and of Swarthmore
College. I am delighted that her
contribution is now to be recog­
nized in The Garnet Letter and de­
lighted, also, to have this oppor­
tunity of recording, however inade­
quately, my own gratitude to her
for her assistance in my work.

started building the house in W al­
lingford. They must have had a
p air'o f shoestrings though, for they
not only completed the house but
also managed to finance a summer
study trip to Europe for Lydia in
1938.
In her own home Emma soon
extended her talents. Starting in a
handicraft class given one winter by
Mrs. Elmore, she has now become a
skilled craftsman of silver jewelry.
No longer an artisan, she designs
and makes beautiful rings, earrings
and pins and with characteristic un­
selfishness gives most of them away.

H er interest in arts and crafts led
her this fall to become one of the
chief organizers of the new Commu­
nity Arts Center recently started on
Rogers Lane in Wallingford. Much
to her own surprise, she is now its
recording secretary and a member
of the board of directors.
In an apparently never-ending
stream of resourcefulness, the Abbett-Baer corporation r e c e n t l y
joined four other friends and have
been expanding “Nanticoke”, a
summer place on the Indian River
near Rehoboth, Delaware. For the
past two years many of their week­
ends have been spent hammering
this latest acquisition into shape.
The sight of the President’s sedate
secretary in slacks crawling around
a scaffolding would no doubt
startle several g e n e r a t i o n s of
Swarthmoreans.
Emma Abbett today demonstrates
more vitality and enthusiasm than
many people half her age. Her
friends know no finer person, and
her contribution to Swarthmore
College is such that only two men
can fully measure its importance.

NEW FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCED
The list of fellowships available
for Swarthmore graduates received
a handsome addition recently. On
December 29, President Nason an­
nounced that the Catherwood Foun­
dation of Philadelphia has granted
Swarthmore a $1,000 Fellowship to
be awarded annually to “an out­
standing student, m an or woman, in
the senior class who proposes to go
on to graduate or professional
schools.”
T he new Catherwood Fellowship
now becomes the largest graduate
award which the college has power
to bestow. Its recipients must meet
the same qualifications required of
Rhodes Scholars.
News from New York

Continuedfrom Page 4

ford ’39), Mr. & Mrs. J. Arnold DeVeer (M argaret Hopkins ’25).
The Club combined tea with its
business meeting on January 15th
at the New Weston Hotel. Jean Ferriss ’42 had charge of the tea and
Miss Gertrude Smith of thè Arthur
Hoyt Scott Foundation, showed col­
ored slides of the campus. Thirtyfive alumnae were present.