THE KEY "REPORTER
THE PHI BETA KAPPA NEWS MAGAZINE
VOLUME IV NUMBER 3 This Issue Goes to 85,000 Members SUMMER 1939
true A Stronghold of Freedom We are the one group who can impose upon our colleges standards. We are the judge of whether an institution is a
liberal we can grant charters where we we can MARJORIE NICOLSON, $ B K Smith college; will; publicly take away charters from institutions which fail to Dean, Smith College meet the true standard of liberal education. It is for us to set
From an address delivered in Ike Symposium on 20lh see page February 4 the standard of the future, for us to determine the content of
education" that "complete and generous which alone is liberal
he liberal arts college has been and must continue to be education. It is for us to insist that our liberal colleges be the stronghold of the humanities; yet the liberal arts the stronghold of freedom of thought, of freedom of speech, Tcollege today thatthey be themilieu is meeting a crisis in which can develop more serious than at the true liberal any time in its long free from prejudice, history. The chief at from arrogance, tack upon us is from magnanimous, toler those who insist that ant, liberal. It is for education be "prac us to establish the
tical." "Of what use true motto of the is a liberal educa true liberal: "Ye
tion?" It is a con shall know the truth
stant question, and and the truth shall free." one to which we can make you
give no answer which
satisfies the question
ers. I am reminded
of the famous Cam bridge toast: "To Charles Evans Hughes, Jr., pure mathematics John H. Finley and and it never be may John Kirkland Clark at anyone." of use to It Phi Beta Kappa's Dinner, is our and our glory February 20, 1939 function to pass on the goodly heritage of the past, to stress learning not for profit but for learning's sake. or But in so doing we meet another opposition that tend The Humanities Absolutism? ency in education which believes in what a shrewd old pro ROSCOE POUND, $ B K Nebraska fessor of mine called "The Doctrine of Interest without Former Dean the Harvard Law Principle." of School In the face of this we are prone to give way, to try From an address delivered in the Symposium on February 20th see page 4 to make our curricula more attractive. We are lowering standards, dropping our requirements for admission and for Historical continuity is involved in civilization. We graduation, yielding to a pressure which we must resist. reshape the institutions of the past to new uses. We Because the secondary schools for economic or other reasons understand new conditions from analogy of old ones. or We reason to drop Latin and Greek, or higher mathematics, science, apply experience of the past. The materials shall we sit quietly by and accede where we should lead, upon which we exercise creative reason were given us by the follow where we should insist? past. Who is to face the issue? We have Phi Beta Kappa a dis Not the least of our heritage is the idea of freedom. The passionate, loyal, devoted body of learned men and women. {Continued on page 5)
In This Issue: Get Ready for World Problems by John W. Davis Reviews of Seasoned Timber, Reaching for the Stars, Tree ofLiberty
PHI BETA KAPPA in PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED CHAPTERS OF November, February, May and September, at the Rumford Press, Concord, N. H. New N. Y. William A. B Editorial and executive offices, 12 East 44th Street, York, Editor, Shimer, Harvard * K; Assistant Editor, Dorothy E. Blair; Consulting Editor, Frank P. Graves, President of the United Chapters. Adver rates upon tising application. Subscription 20 cents a year, $1.00for five years. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Con cord, N. H., under Act of March 3, 1879. POSTMASTER: if undeliverable al youi office and addressee's new address Is please rated with postage known, forward, due to cover forwarding charge Undeliverable copies should be sent to: org PHI BETA KAPPA, 1! East 44th Street, New York, N. Y. www.pbk. Forwarding and return postage www.pbk. guaranteed. [2] THE KEY REPORTER Summer, 1939
First $1,500 OBK Award Get Ready for World Problems Alice B. Critchett, summa cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College in JOHN W. DAVIS, * B K Washington and Lee 1933 and winner of numerous college Lawyer, Former Ambassador to Great Britain awards and " Tomorrow" scholarships, has been Digest of a radio address delivered on April 14, 1939, in the series, Get Ready for awarded
arts," Mount Holyoke speak the ominous words: "Get ready! the "liberal rarely stopping to in
ready!" with a scholar Get What does it mean? Get quire how that adjective crept into the ship for the fresh ready for what? Get ready how? Get educational field. We take it direct from man ranking highest in the college en ready why? the Romans, who called those things "liberal" trance board examinations. In her Men differ in their answers. Some which were befitting to men junior year she was elected to member think it means get ready for universal of free and not of servile birth; and the "liberal" ship in $ B K and obtained a scholarship wars. Get ready to fight for a larger arts, those branches oflearning from the Institute of International Edu place in the sun, get ready to defend the which only free men were permitted to cation for study in France with the rights you have. Is it possible that the pursue. The world has moved since that Delaware Group, returning to this great wind has only this despairing day, but it still remains true that a country with a scholarship medal from message? It is a terrible and bloody liberal education, based on the study of the University of Nancy and a diploma wind, if this is true. the liberal arts and sciences, alone can (Continued on page 6) Some pretend to think the wind has a free the minds of men and keep them milder prophecy to deliver; that it free. Vocational and technical instruc really calls us to get ready for security tion and training in mechanical skill are Taunt for a Scholar and a more abundant life, a life where well enough in their way, but there toil will be less and leisure will be must be a broader education if richness BESS R. DVVORSKY, $ B K Minnesota greater and the needs of the body will be is to be given to the individual life and Shut the spring night out ! within easy reach of every man. No one an intelligent outlook gained on the Let written words console the empty heart, will deny that it is good to be sheltered, problems of a troubled world. It is this Words of the rotted dead, who once were men, clothed, warmed, fed. But those who sort of education of which it has been And lived, and marveled when read the wind in this fashion do not take said that "it teaches men to do the saw the sprout They greening do." occasion remind us that the cattle things not been Of wet black earth and knobby bough. to they have taught to Aye, shut the spring night out standing to their halters in their narrow I would not have you think, when I Too late for now. loving stalls have all of these things. Make no speak of a liberal education, that I am mistake, however, the wind that offers talking only of what can be gathered Shut the spring winds out! this and no more is a false and a de inside college walls. Some of the most Let dead men's songs blow through the dusty heart ceiving wind. genuinely educated persons I have met Dreams of the withered past that once was Is it not more than possible that on my journey through life never young. neither of these interpretations can be stepped inside a college door. There is Lose cloistered thoughts among true? Granted all the present turmoil in nothing new about that. With our pub Your books; allow men's is it not possible that when lic free Nor beating rain nor creeping mist to start minds, libraries, lectures, cheap books, un- Their quick spring madness in the blood and the wind has quieted down men and plentiful magazines, and a free and flout women will continue to live on the self censored press and radio, no one can Your sedentary days; but shut the spring winds same planet upon which were born that has passed him out they say learning by and the eternal verities will still hold unless he wills it so. in this Too late for loving now. Moreover, sway? I venture to think that the wind, free country he is free to take as much of Shut the spring world out ! with all its violence and power, is say it as he will, without a by-your-leave to The warmth that surges through the mortal ing, especially to the young men and anyone. When we look elsewhere, we heart women of the country, to get ready to see a different picture. Will play you false ere half the year is done; parts as men question whether all the And what's begun play their independent free I in history In joy will end in gnawing sorrow. and women should; to get ready to use of mankind there has been any time For you the scholar's vow ! and not abuse the great gifts which when intellectual freedom has been Keep to your books, nor borrow science is pouring forth; to get ready under more open and direct attack For your role sad Dido's part. to- with character, wisdom and valor to than it is today. The creed of the Quick, shut the spring night out enrich the inheritance of (Continued on page Too late for loving now. defend and 8) www.pbk.org Summer, 1939 THE KEY REPORTER [3]
From Log Cabin to OBK Society would be established at Wash leadership of Dr. Samuel P. Capen, the ington and Jefferson College. The College has attained a position of dis
ALFRED H. undergradu SWEET, $ B K Bowdoin installation finally took place on Home tinction among American Founders' coming Day and Day, Oc ate schools. It has attracted scholars of Washington and Jefferson College, tober 30, 1937. President Graves came distinction to its faculty and under the with a corporate existence of a to Washington to install the chapter century and a half and with yet earlier and to be the orator of the Homecoming memories of log cabin academies estab Day exercises. "The Creation of Lead lished west of the mountains, belongs to ers" was the subject of his address, and the older generation of American insti $ B K Senator Roscoe Pound spoke tutions of higher and owes its learning briefly on "Rationalism and Realism in origin to that belief in religious K." piety Relation to the Motto of $ B That and sound which was charac learning evening Senator Pound was the chief teristic of the pioneers and settlers early speaker at the alumni banquet, de of this country. Washington Academy, livering an address which was an ex for which a grant of 5,000 acres of land ample of monumental erudition lightly was secured and to which Benjamin borne and gracefully delineated. Franklin gave 50 for the purchase of books, was chartered in 1787 and be Aerial view, University of Buffalo Campus came Washington College in 1806. Omicron of New York Four years earlier the at academy tutorial system of instruction introduced nearby Canonsburg had become Jeffer PERCY W. BIDWELL, * B K Yak in 1930 has set up and successfully son College. For some years the rivalry maintained high standards of accom "average individuals can for a while plishment the undergraduates. J~\_ conserve the achievements of the among race and keep the activities of every day life in operation, but they must ever look to their intellectual superiors Of 1,000 students who enter the pub for new steps in progress, which alone lic 610 reach high 260 stagnation," schools, school, can keep the world from are graduated, 160 enter college, 50 said Dr. Frank Pierrepont Graves, Pres graduate from college, and 1 walks ident of $ B K, when speaking last away with a $ B K key. spring at the installation of the Chapter at the University of Buffalo. At the ceremony of installation the charter was presented by President Graves and Get for Tomorrow received for the 38 charter members by Ready Dr. Julius W. Pratt, Professor of History series of six $ B K at the University. weekly broad casts was begun April when Four prominent educators were elected A 14, the Honorable John W. spoke to membership: Mr. John Davis Administration Building and Old Maine honorary over the National Com Washington and Jefferson College Lord O'Brian, one of the regents of the Broadcasting pany's coast-to-coast Red Network on University of the State of New York, the subject "Get for between the two colleges served to block Assistant General of Ready World formerly Attorney Problems." The series is broadcast over the progress of both; and ill feeling was the United States; Dr. Bapst, chairman WEAF and affiliated stations on Fri not lessened when in 1817 Dr. Andrew of the Board of Education of the City of days at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Wylie, President of Jefferson College, Buffalo; Dr. Michael Gelsinger, Pro Saving Time. A digest of the address given was called to the presidency of Wash fessor of Classics, University of Buffalo; by Mr. Davis appears in this issue (page ington and, subsequently, Dr. Matthew and Dr. Fritz Machlup, Professor of 2), and digests of subsequent Brown, first President of Washington Economics. addresses will be given in later issues. College, became President of Jefferson. The installation was followed by a In Washington College was forced joint banquet of the new chapter and 1829 April 21. "Preparing Young Men for Tomor row" by financial need to suspend its ses the Phi Beta Kappa Association of by Dean Christian Gauss of Princeton University. sions and to close its doors. Shortly Buffalo. Dr. Edward Schauroth, the after this, however, and before the president of the new Chapter, greeted April 28. "Get Ready for Tomorrow's Press" Printing John H. Editor period of stress was ended, the College the new members and guests in fluent by Finley, Emeritus of The New York Times. established in 1831 a professorship of classical Latin. His humor and elo 5. "Get for Leadership" English language and literature, one of quence delighted his audience. May Ready Public by Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Harvard the first of such chairs to be established The of chartered formerly University Buffalo, Law School. in any American college. The two in in 1846 as a non-sectarian coeduca 12. "Get for Expression united at tional now a total regis May Ready through stitutions were Washington, institution, has Art" by John Erskine, author, and formerly in 1865. tration of approximately 5000 students, Pennsylvania, President of the Juilliard School of Music. For at least a quarter of a of whom somewhat more than 700 are century Tomorrow" May 19. "Get Ready for Living by members of $ B K on the faculty worked enrolled in the College of Arts and Chancellor Harry Woodburn Chase of New to hasten the day when a chapter of the Sciences. Lender the able and inspiring York University. www.pbk.org [4] THE KEY REPORTER Summer, 1939
Educators' Sponsoring the impression that $ B K was mobiliz ings for which more interesting speakers ing literally to march 83,000 strong and programs have been provided. Committee against the dictators. But $BK had a Members in various communities are more effective procedure in mind; organizing associations. Radio com Presidents of $ B K Institutions namely, to strengthen the Society in its panies are now glad to get $BK speak Additions to list in Spring issue, making a total of 131 invaluable function of the ers and programs. The press is increas Richard C. Foster University of Alabama dignifying John C. Futrall University of Arkansas Gray- humanities and pure sciences in the its large amount of space Clifton D. Bates College ing already Maurer Beloit College Irving estimation of high school and college given to $BK news. Parents are in Raymond R. Paty Birmingham-Southern College Donald J. Cowling Carleton College students and of and en more Franklin W. Johnson Colby College recognizing quiring frequently concerning George B. Cutten Colgate College couraging high scholarship, in order $ B K institutions, and colleges are in George Norlin University of Colorado Nicholas Murray Butler Columbia University that democratic be blessed eager to qualify for chapters. Herbert J. Burgstahler Cornell College society may creasingly Ernest M. Hopkins Dartmouth College with adequate leadership, and individ Many excellent suggestions for the William P. Few Duke University Edward Conradi Florida State College ual life with the most satisfying creative work of $ B K and numerous offers of Harmon W. Caldwell University of Georgia Henry W. A. Hanson Gettysburg College accomplishments. cooperation from groups and individ John S. Nollen Grinnell College William W. Comfort Haverford College However, the increase in interest, in uals are being made. All this is but a Eugene A. Colligan Hunter College H. Gary Hudson Illinois College financial support, and in volunteer part of $ B K's opportunity to en Herman B. Wells Llniversity of Indiana service enables courage enlightenment which Eugene A. Gilmore State University of Iowa $ B K to revitalize and that makes Isaiah Bowman Johns Hopkins University extend its work. and associa sort of intellectual or political Frank L. McVey University of Kentucky Chapters any dicta William Mather Lewis Lafayette College tions report larger attendance at meet tion intolerable in our democracy. Arthur A. Hauck University of Maine Aurelia H. Reinhardt Mills College Frederick A. Middlebush University of Missouri John C. West University of North Dakota Walter Dill Scott Northwestern University William McPherson Ohio State University Edward L. Rice Ohio Wesleyan University Ralph D. Hetzel Pennsylvania State College Charles K. Edmunds Pomona College Edgar O. Lovett Rice Institute Rion McKissick University of South Carolina I. D. Weeks University of South Dakota Homer P. Rainey University of Texas George Thomas University of Utah John L. Newcomb University of Virginia Louis B. Hopkins Wabash College Ralph Cooper Hutchison Washington & Jefferson College Mildred H. McAfee Wellesley College Charles F. Wishart College of Wooster Charles Seymour Yale University
3,000 at OBK Dinner
IN the words of Dr. John H. Finley:
"The $BK Defense Dinner was an extraordinary affair. It surpassed the expectations and even the hopes of
those who had a part in its planning.
Moreover there has been a widespread
national interest in the purpose of the meeting and in the program which was brilliantly presented." This program was carried out on February 20 at the Hotel Astor in New York, as announced in the last issue, except that over 3,000 were present
where 300 had been expected. More than 60 chapters and associations ap pointed official representatives and many colleges sent banners. The sym posium and round table discussion on
"The Crisis of the Humanities in the Freedom" Fight for Intellectual was
broadcast to millions of listeners and has been reported by hundreds of newspapers and magazines. The headlines occasioned by Dean Gauss' address and by Dorothy Thomp son's report a few minutes after she had
been expelled from a of the Speakers'1 meeting A partial view of the Table and of the mott German- American Bund, gave many New York, on February 20, 1939, at which the Society lo www.pbk.org Summer, 1939 THE KEY REPORTER [5]
Unsolicited contributions from order to attain our 1300,000 goal ranging many Humanities or Absolutism? $1 to |1,000 have come in and more large gifts of $500 to $25,000 will be page than 700 members [Continuedfrom 7) have volunteered as necessary. Any member or friend who campaign workers in the New can per York send in such a contribution, human spirit seeks to be and is able to
area. space does not create a memorial or other organized Unfortunately haps to be free. A politically society permit the of all the physical ac listing names. special fund, will greatly encourage the may coerce or restrain my Every chapter is represented. The New chairmen and others who are devoting tivities. It cannot coerce or restrain my York Chairman mental the untoward is Dave Hennen Mor much time and money in this effort to activities beyond expression of if man shall not ris, Harvard $ B K, recently Ambassa revitalize and strengthen $ B K at this them. But cannot live with dor to Belgium. The chairmen and crucial time. live by bread alone, he satisfaction of material wants. The workers of the various divisions and out one his well- spirit urges him in direction, college groups include many material wants pull him in another. Ex known men and women. This group of The fourth annual *B K-A.A.A.S. perience developed by reason has called members and similar committees to be lecture, which President Frank Pierre for a balance, and the humanities are formed in other cities will continue to pont Graves delivered last December concerned with that balance as a legacy see the members and friends of $ B K before an audience of 1,200 at Rich from the past which it is our task to until everyone has had an opportunity mond, Virginia, was published as the preserve and use for the maintaining to learn about the $ B K program and leading article in the February issue of and furthering of civilization. to contribute to the Defense Fund. In School and Society. From the later years of the nineteenth century there has been increasingly a swing away from the humanities. The continually greater mastery over ex ternal nature through the development
of the physical sciences has turned
men's thoughts to the material exist ence. We have seemed to be forgetting that the harnessing of physical nature to men's use has been made possible by the harnessing of internal or human nature which is the concern of the
humanities. With the rise of the mate rial sciences to dominance, the growth of an economic interpretation, and the cult of satisfying economic demands, we come to forget how freedom made mate
rial progress possible and how balance and law, by which freedom is main tained, are basic to civilization. Throughout the world today the recrudescence of absolutism is expressed in philosophies regarding efficient satis faction of material wants as the highest good. Political absolutism in Europe, a growing fashion of administrative ab solutism in the English-speaking world grows out of a quest for efficiency in satisfying material wants to which for a time men have seemed willing to sacri fice the values of the spiritual existence. If we are troubled by the political phases of this quest for efficiency, if we fear the spread of political absolutism and all that it implies, let us bear in mind that behind them is a mode of thought making for absolutism in all directions; a mode of thought which would commit not merely material and institutional but spiritual and intellec tual waste. Nothing less than this is in volved in any giving up or even dimin ts at the Phi Beta Kappa Dinner in the Hotel Astor, cultivation of e in the fightfor intellectual freedom ished the humanities. of the humanities www.pbk.org [6] THE KEY REPORTER Summer, 1939
Know of an Opening First $1,500 OBK Award Books tO Own (Continuedfrom page 2) If name is not given, address Member No. The Book Committee: Dorothy Canfield bien" care The the of Will D. Burton E. Liv , of Key Reporter. ^mention tres from University Fisher, Howe, Robert A. Paris. As the highest ranking senior Miss ingston, Millikan, Irita Van Companion Willis- Critchett was awarded the Sarah Doren. 41. (Miss, S. D.) A.B., Northwestern '13; M.A., Univ. of Washington classics. Exp. Bard- '31; majors, English, teaching ton senior prize scholarship. The For the reader's convenience orders girls' for any books secondary school English and classical lang.; adviser. amateur Mount or magazines will be filled prepaid Interests gardening, literature, languages, well Memorial Fellowship from by The Key music. Wants also to dean of girls. tutoring, assistantship Reporter. A free personal or Holyoke made it possible for her to introductory gift subscription lo The American Scholar will be sent Editorial, Publishing See also 200, 207 pursue her studies at Radcliffe during with order at least $6.00. 197. (Miss, N. Y. C.) A.B., N.Y.U M.A., Columbia any of '36; the year and in 1934 to 1936 she '38; major,, zoology; minors, English, chemistry, mathemat 1933-34, has completed course work for Ph.D. Exp. ics; typing, was awarded two grants from the Green free-lance writing, teaching business English. Wants also Seasoned Timber college teaching or assistantship, laboratory or library work, Fund at Radcliffe and a prize from the in scientific field. writing Canfield. 198. (Miss, Vt- & R. L) Ph.B.,_ Brown '12, A.M. '16. Italian government for her study of By Dorothy Harcourt, Brace Exp. high school teaching, clerical, research, writing, returned and New 7939. $2.50. editorial. Wants manuscripts to prepare for publication, Italian literature. In 1936 she Company, York, proofread, and see through the press. to Paris for study, after having received In her latest novel Dorothy Canfield from Law the Mary E. Woolley Fellowship runs very true to form. The setting is 199. N. Y. St. Lawrence Columbia Law (Mr., C.) '34; Mount Holyoke. She was given a Ph.D. high the subject a double- School '37. Exp. trial and preparation of Supreme Court Vermont, cases, preparation of involved appeals. Wants employ in Romance Philology by Radcliffe barreled ethical problem, and the main ment as attorney in law firm or corporation. College in 1937 for her thesis "Anatole character a middle-aged, slightly wire- Christianity." Research See also 203 France and edged intellectual. We expect to en 200. Charles Freedhand, 270S Yale Station, New Haven, Miss who is now an in counter cold and rarefied air of Conn. A.B., Yale '35; Yale Grad. School '35-'37; major, Critchett, the Latin; minor, Greek; also French, German. Exp. research, structor in French at Mount upland winter the astringent sales, clerk, tutor, librarian. Conn, certificate for teaching Holyoke, twilights, mathematics. Latin, Greek, German, history, philosophy, will be granted a year's leave of absence shrewdness of and Wants also secretarial, journalism, publishing, translating, country judgments, library, teaching, tutoring. for her research in Paris and will return the New England gift for spiritual and to this country in September of 1940. moral discrimination. In no respect are Secretarial, Business See also 200 presentation of the award 201. (Mr., Brooklyn, N. Y.) A.B., Cornell Univ. '35; The formal we disappointed. major, history; yr. at Harvard School of Business Admin. of this $1,500 which repre The book centers on a Exp. accounting, editorial, sales. Wants affiliation with Fellowship, schoolmaster, business house with for advancement. opportunity sents the income from a bequest to Coulton Hulme name, a 202. (Mrs., N. Y. C.) A.B., Washington Univ. '37; Timothy by major, English. Exp. secretarial, statistical. Certificate $ B K by Dr. Isabelle Stone in honor of Scotchman thoroughly acclimated in for teaching high school English, general science, biology. Wants position as medical or psychiatric secretary. her mother, was made to Miss Critchett Vermont, where he has been for twenty at a dinner meeting of some 160 $BK years or so the head of a struggling Teaching, Assistantship See also 197, 200 members City's Town Hall 203. Miss Elizabeth S. Avery, 197 East Post Rd., White at New York local academy. Flint has come home to Plains, N. Y. A.B., Syracuse '34; M.A., Columbia Teachers Club on April 24th. Dean granite. But at forty-five he falls in College '39; majors, English, nutrition. Exp. 5 yrs. teach Monday, love, high school science. Wants college or research assistant- ing Marjorie Nicolson of Smith College, in spite of his better with one ship in nutrition. judgment, 204. (Mr., N. J.) A.B., Wesleyan '32, A.M. '33;_A.M., Chairman of the Fellowship Committee, of his teachers, a country girl aged Princeton '39; major, French; minor, Spanish; working for Ph.D. Exp. - yr. teaching preparatory school French, made the presentation in the name of twenty-four. There is no earthly reason Spanish, Latin; 3 semesters and 2 summer sessions teaching other members of the can college French; travel in France. Wants college or secondary the Society. The why he shouldn't marry her; he school teaching. which the youthful com 205. (Miss, Ohio) Flora Stone Mather '35, M.A. in Fellowship Committee made give her everything but French '37, work on Ph.D.; major, French; minors, Spanish, selection from the large number of appli panionship. He dallies with the thought Italian, English, history; now at Western Reserve Library School. Exp. high school tutoring, teaching, translating cations, are Dr. E. and of the gulf of years between for commercial correspondent and law firm. Wants college, Mary Woolley bridging private school, or high school teaching; translating; libra President Stanton Ford. but before he can persuade her rianship. Guy them, 206. Paul J. DeSio, 122 High St., Norwich, Conn. A.B., that his intentions are more than fatherly, Ohio Univ. '36, A.M. '37; majors, French, Spanish, Italian; Phi Beta Kappas name minor, social science. Exp. tutoring, teaching, concert a young man whose middle is band. Ohio, Conn., New York teaching licenses. Wants On Guard Against C." cuts in and "old T. must college, academy, or secondary school teaching. Totalitarianism Virility 207. (Miss, A.B., Western Reserve '29; M.A., OhioJ
household young," renting, management; teaching; publicity; """"""" always and let it go at that. management; private secretary. www.pbk.org Summer, 1939 THE KEY REPORTER [V]
The second part of the story raises blame, Miss Wain has recorded what bewildered, and for the moment help a more real and timely problem. One she saw and heard. Though she has less; but if Miss Wain's picture is a three of of the trustees Clifford Academy written a tragic and terrible story, its truthful one, and in every line it bears and bequeaths a million dies dollars essence is not despair, but a calm sure the stamp of authenticity, the present to the old school on condition that it faith in the ultimate goodness and darkness will pass. The spirit of Luther
change its a name, become high-priced, humanity of the German people. still lives in Germany, and it is roused boys' exclusive and of violence and in preparatory school, Throughout the book there are tales anew by every act exclude Jewish students from its part of the Reich halls of barbarism and of cruelty tales of justice. In every today forever. Hulme sees snobbish Timothy men taken from their homes, and of men and women are working silently and race-prejudice "cause" ness threatening to coffins returned to sorrowing wives and for a and it is not the cause of undo his life and with work, the help children after months of silence; tales National Socialism. of a good Yankee trustee goes about to of men who go for walks and do not Charles M. Wiltse, persuade the village to refuse that mil return, and of men and women who Author of "The Jeffersonian Tradition in Democracy." lion dollars on principle. Of course flee hysterically from all they hold most American Vermont can be counted on to be itself, dear. These things are not mentioned but not without a con heart-thrilling in the German press, but they are test. This part of the novel glows with known and deeply felt by the German genuine fervor. The Tree of people. Liberty Dorothy Canfield knows her Ver after an question Once, indiscreet By Elizabeth Page. Farrar & Rinehart, mont. She also knows her schools. She at a dinner, Miss Wain was reminded Inc., New Tork, 1939. $3. caught has perfectly the tone and spirit one of her fellow guests of the by story The conflict between Hamilton and a small of New England community, of Faust who sold himself to the devil and between the things for pictured Jefferson, and she has understandingly but lived to regret his and her bargain; which has furnished the a they stood, what country academy may mean to informant added: "Faust is us us in theme of novels, but nowhere of the many the pride district that supports it. a perhaps no foreigner can under way in our imaginative literature is that stand." She has effectively buttressed the imagi On another occasion she visited conflict more sensitively understood or native of Americanism. Though validity an old professor whose only surviving more vividly described than in Miss her story is a bit frosty for the suggestion son was in a concentration camp. She Page's Tree of Liberty. Her story, im of "sweet spring, full of sweet days and found the father not embittered but mense substance roses" in as it is portentous that the title from George Her proudly likening his son to Florestan, in theme, embraces the half-century bert calls up, it exemplifies finely the the hero of Beethoven's opera Fidelia, between Braddock's defeat and the strenuous liberty that Milton declared who symbolizes truth in chains. Lewis and Clark expedition, introduces was the condition of a people's freedom. These Germans who live in Miss almost important character in George F. every Whicher, Wain's pages are neither barbarians nor this period, presents most of the dra and Amherst Author professor of English, supermen. are a people of rich They matic and argues most of the College episodes, culture and high ideals, gentle, friendly, significant issues. This is a heavy burden and peace loving, but sorely distressed of history for one novel to carry, and circumstances they do not know how by sometimes, it must be confessed, the to control. What could be more reveal novel sags under its burden. But for the for the Stars than the story of the vineyardist Reaching ing most part it moves with spirit and vigor, who had saved from the harvest enough though always on the surface. By Nora Waln. Little, Brown and Com for a badly needed new coat but bought The Howard family of back-country pany, Boston, 1939. S3. instead a of Beethoven's recording Virginia furnishes the vehicle for the Ninth Symphony? Or the Hitler youth years Ger Nora Wain spent four in historical argument Howards cling who knocked down a fellow Nazi for many four years that extended from ing to Jefferson, Peytons to Hamilton, an aged and the police that first mass murder called the purge baiting Jewess, and the children and grandchildren man who led him up a side street, shook of 1934 to the dismemberment of dividing their allegiance between the his and bade him Godspeed? Or Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1938. hand, two leaders. At times the members of the news vendor who denied the charge Partly through the many Germans she the family become merely mouthpieces, that his papers did not bear out his oral and her .husbandhad known in the but individuals among them achieve version of the news by explaining that Orient, partly because the House of Exile life and authenticity. The most success what is printed in German papers is the proved popular in Germany, but most fully realized of all the characters, how opposite of what should be there? of all through the gentleness and under ever, is Thomas Jefferson. Nowhere in There is an old German proverb that standing of her own Quaker spirit, she fiction, indeed, does Jefferson come politics spoil the character, and that came to know intimately Germans in all more convincingly to life than in the perhaps is the clue to post-war Germany. walks of life and in all parts of the pages of this book. The portrait is not came to a people Reich. Musicians and farmers, scholars Democracy suddenly only accurate in detail, but faithful in unprepared, with no background of and peasants, Hitler youths and village spirit, and the spirit of Jefferson hovers experience in their own af patriarchs, storm troopers and exiles managing over the whole of the story. fairs. Through their own unwillingness were numbered Miss from the fatherland Page's sympathies, indeed, are to accept the responsibilities of citizen among her friends; and she found them, unfailingly with Jefferson and his fol and because the democratic pow one and all, reaching for the stars. ship, lowers, and so strong are those sympa ers failed to understand their In simple, matter-of-fact language, plight, thies that they prevent the author from unmarred by words of censure or of they havewww.pbk.fallen on evil orgtimes. They are doing entire justice to the Hamiltonians. [8] THE KEY REPORTER Summer, 1939
In seizing upon Jefferson as the signifi cant figure for this period of our history, Miss Page is unerringly right, but her one-sided interpretation of the struggle HARVARD between the two factions and the two BOOKS philosophies mars the narrative. The Tree of Liberty is an old-fashioned costume-piece, closer in manner to In Time of Mistrust the stories of Winston Churchill and S. By Robert S. Hillyer. Fourteen sonnets are here woven into an ode, which Wier Mitchell and Paul L. Ford than to was delivered on December 5, 1938, before the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta the modern historical chronicle. In its Kappa at the College of William and Mary. $1.50 presentation of historical material it strikes beneath the service to realities, A History of American Magazines but the story itself is romance and the By Frank Luther Mott. "One of the most notable contributions to the characters superficial. made." history of journalism ever John Bakeless, in The Commonweal. Henry Steele Commager, Vol. 1 (1741-1850), $7.50; Vol. 2 (1850-1865), $5.00; Vol. 3 (1865-1885), $5.00. Professor of History, New York University
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