THE K\EY %EPORTER
THE PHI BETA KAPPA NEWS MAGAZINE
VOLUME IV NUMBER 4 This Issue Goes to 85,000 Members AUTUMN 1939
GETTING READY FOR EXPRESSION IN THE ARTS
JOHN ERSKINE, $ B K Columbia might be found persons of these trades who could perform on the French horn, clarinet, or hautboy, and bassoon, so that one might have a band Member of the Editorial Board The American Scholar of . . . . without enlarging their domestic expenses. . . Without meaning
to give you perhaps it might be practicable for you ... to find hen Thomas Jefferson was seventy-five years old his trouble, out such men disposed to come to America. advice was asked about the proper education of a
education," Wyoung girl. "A plan of female he wrote, Even in Jefferson's day and in his own experience there "has never been a sub were beginnings of that
ject of systematic con amateur music-making
me." templation with But which should characterize as his letter proceeds he a democracy, and which makes some neat observa sets an example for the
tions about the advantage practice of the other arts. of learning dancing, draw Almost every man in Vir "Music," ing, and music. ginia who, as Jefferson he tells us, "is invaluable would say, "had an where a person has an played the flute Jeffer
ear. ... It furnishes a son himself, for example, delightful recreation for and Patrick Henry, and the hours of respite from George Washington. The the cares of the day, and advantage of the flute was life." lasts us through its high degree of port Just forty years earlier ability. Jefferson wrote to a friend In our country today in France a letter revealing the advance in all the arts
a much more vigorous is so great that we might faith in the importance of easily indulge in a danger the arts, especially ofmusic. ous self-satisfaction. But if Here is the Jefferson who we take a long view of our believed that competent progress, the most prom expression in the arts is ising symptom in our na necessary for any complete tional life is the rapid articulation of political, or growth of the arts among social, or humane ideals. the people at large. Every where we are to The bounds of an American learning or or fortune will not admit the in draw paint, carve, or dulgence of a domestic band of model, or sing, or not Mickey Gets Places play, yet I have thought musicians, primarily because any par made for The American Scholar the Walt Studios that a passion for music might A drawing especially by Disney ticular art is to be our pro- and used as a frontispiece in the to illustrate Jean Chariot's be reconciled with that econ Summer 1939 issue article, "But is it Art? A Disquisition." omy which we are obliged to Disney Brides: observe. I retain among my You and domestic servants a gardener, a weaver, a cabinet-maker, and a stone others, including the postmaster or any person to whom the post vigneron. In a like cutter, to which I would add a country where, yours, master delivers this, should send notices of changed names or ad class of I suppose there music is cultivated and practiced by every men, dresses or of deaths to * B K, 12 East 44th Street, New York Citv.
In This Issue: Mural of OBK in 1 776. Books on Emerson's Letters, Dictatorship, Our Lives (reviewed by Dorothy Canfield Fisher)
PUBLISHED BT THE UNITED CHAPTERS OF PHI BETA KAPPA in November, February, May and September, at the Rumford Press, Concord, N. H. 44th New N. T. William A. Harvard * B Assistant Editorial and executive offices, 12 East Street, Tork, Editor, Shimer, K; Editor, Dorothy E. Blair; Consulting Editor, Frank P. Graves, President of the United Chapters. Adver tising rates upon application. Subscription 20 cents a year, $1.00 for Jive years. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Con cord, N. H., under Act of March 3, 1879.
POSTMASTER: IF undeliverable at your office and addressee's new address is please rated known, forward, with postage due to cover forwarding charge. Undeliverable copies should be sent to: PHI BETA KAPPA, 12 East 44th Street, New York, N. Y. www.pbk.org Forwarding and return postage guaranteed. [2] THE KEY REPORTER Autumn, 1939
ter of * B situated at the Florida State Col fession, but because we are preparing sculptors, musicians, dramatists, poets, K, lege for pledges its own support, both for life. would we send? Women, novelists, 4> moral and financial, to the B K Defense Fund But here again we should not be too It is time we got to express ready for the Humanities and Intellectual Freedom, satisfied. proper use of the easily The ourselves. and also urges upon all Floridians, whether arts is to articulate our ideals. To say all members of $ B K or not, the importance of Editor's Note. This is a digest of a radio organized effort to that the human spirit yearns we supporting every maintain for, address delivered on 12, 1939, in the May the freedom of thought and breadth of culture need all the tongues. higher man Tomorrow." The $ B K series, "Get Ready for which have contributed so effectively to this the more obvious the need kind rises, is country's greatness. that every individual should have the technique of as many arts as possible. There is reason to doubt that we yet Volunteers to the Defense
recognize this essential truth. Perhaps alpha Gamma Delta, international Who's News we have got no further than the very Today J~\_ women's fraternity, assembled in elementary conception of culture which biennial convention on June 29, volun _By LEMUEL F. PAKTOJf. is concerned with the best that has The absent-minded professor la tarily voted a gift of $200 to $ B K's already been said and thought in the one up ori the hard-headed banker. program for the Defense of the Human When Dr. James Monroe Smith, world. Until we become completely ities and Intellectual Freedom, tele president of the University of Lou our culture will remain self-expressive, started out, be graphing: isiana, branching memorial and retrospective. fore he became a fugitive, sundry We are to join in the work of your bankers were eager to lend him If we are not careful, the love happy growing without collateral. organization whose objectives we are proud to money One of art in our country which leads young banker was hurt because he support in all our chapters. declared in on a $500,- and old to practice music or painting or hadn't been The Cum Laude organized 000 touch and insisted on shoving sculpture end in the sterile condi Society, may out $100,000. But when the Uni in 1906 for the promotion of scholarship tion of the old Chinese scholarship. All versity of Louisiana wanted a char in schools and re Phi Beta the the censorships which misguided gov secondary closely ter from Kappa, $BK in methods and stand national scholarship fraternity, in ernments impose are less malign than sembling 1936, the national officers sent a ards, voted a gift of $100 to the fund. the censorship the artist imposes on him few scholars down to Baton Rouge Pi Beta national for to look over the plant and the self when he celebrates by-gones which Phi, fraternity manager. college sent $150 and these he knows instead of the women, only by hearsay, They refused the charter. Wil gracious words: glories and the needs of the moment in liam A. Shimer, national secretary of Phi Beta Kappa, today ex which he lives. The fraternity is happy indeed to ask for the plained this refusal, to this writer, privilege of a small part in the cam Because of this self-imposed censor having as follows: in recognition of the honor which has paign, "When Phi Beta Kappa's com ship, American artists have been caught individual members of Pi Beta Phi in come to mittee on qualification made an in in the present grave challenge election Phi Beta and in appre napping their to Kappa, vestigation of the university in 1936
to the democracies of the world. Most ciation of the nation-wide service which Phi the second investigation in re Kappa has given in the fight for cent yearsit again declined to of our writers, dramatists and draughts Beta long intellectual freedom. recommend the institution for a men can express a voluble and vigorous chapter, largely because of a lack hate of those hostile to the democratic Spontaneous cooperation has also of confidence in the administration tie-up." due to its political idea, but argument from hatred is an come from several local $ B K groups. mainly At the time of the first investiga a For instance one check came with this undemocratic, despotic, procedure, tion, it was erroneously reported and to adopt it is to sell out democracy. formal resolution: that Dr. Smith was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. This department we need just now are artist- What Be It Resolved: That the Florida Alpha Chap- was led into error by this report spokesmen who can represent all that and wrongly identified Dr. Smith we precious in our of life. I as a member. This correction is find way - especially important in view of the regret the emotional condition of those fact that the fraternity is making fellow-writers who refuse to have their Harvard Phi Beta Kappa a gallant fight for the renovation books published in Germany. Should of our national democracy and just Rule now has more of a clinical than the Germans be deprived of democratic Ends 92-Year Dry fraternal interest in the strange books just because Hitler attacks de goings-on in Louisiana. Special to Thb New 7orK Times. mocracy? are we afraid our Or books 23. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June The myth of the cloistered and are not representative of de really The Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta gullible schoolman is again as
"wet" mocracy? Kappa voted at its annual sailed by news of the appointment of Alan Valentine, president of the In the World War Switzerland was a meeting today. of to a di A ninety-two-year-old law, for University Rochester, duelling ground for propaganda. The rectorship of the Freeport Sulphur bidding the serving of "spirituous Company. a sure-enough liquor" He is German advocates tried to persuade the at the Phi Beta Kappa Phi Beta Kappa and they are that France was was repealed unani Swiss decadent, lag dinners, by proud of him. Now 38 years old, mous vote. he achieved high ging behind the march of civilization. academic distinc The dry law was adopted In tion as a Rhodes scholar and as a The French countered sending to by 1847, it was disclosed, because for professor in the department of his Yale" Geneva a troupe of her best actors and arts and letters at Uni half a century previous the Phi tory, versity. Previously, he was as actresses to perform the best French Beta Kappa meetings had become sistant professor of English at increasingly uproarious, lasting plays. Swarthmore. his alma mater. seven or eight hours and includ If now we wished to show the Ger ing twenty to thirty substantial Excerpt from a column in The New Tork man people the best of democratic life toasts. Sun, June 30, 1939 in America, which American painters, www.pbk.org Autumn, 1939 THE KEY R E P 0 R T E R [3]
he taught with vigor and controversy. American Mother for Know of an Opening? At the time of his death he was working 1939 on a final volume, Creation, which was to If name is not given, address Member No. draw together the many threads of his care Reporter. , The Key interest and give mature expression to oj Editorial 224 his deep religious faith. See also 78. 219, 220, 154. (Mr., Ala.) A.B. '38; M.A., Vanderbilt; major, As an ardent lover of moral philoso history. Exp. editorial & correspondence work, writing, publicity, public relations. Wants also writing, research, of great and phy, humane ideas, he teaching, tutoring. stood out above his fellows. His enthusi Law 213. (Mr., N. Y. C.) N.Y.U. '30; Columbia Law School asm creators of moral was for the ideas '33. Exp. 6 yrs. in corporate & tax practice with large research assistant to N. Y. State Judicial Council. often intense. Of New Englanders he firms; Wants employment as attorney in law firm or corporation. 214. N. Y. C.C.N.Y. Fordham Law School especially admired and South (Mr., C.) '33; Hocking '36. Exp. briefing in all courts, preparation of cases, trial ard, Royce and Emerson. The melioris- of small matters. Wants employment as attorney in law firm or corporation, also teach law. tic tradition of his native New England Medicine was congenial to him. He was a re 215. (Mr., Brooklyn) B.S., St. Lawrence; M.D., Jefferson Medical College. Exp. 2 yrs. interneship, 18 months gen and he liked reformers. It was former, eral residency, 2 yrs. private practice. Wants appointment as district medical examiner for insurance or part- always leaders of company, individuals, thought, time medical position with firm. moral pioneers who won his support; Secretarial See also 224 never barren causes nor lifeless institu 216. (Mrs., N. J.) Boston Univ.; grad. work at C.C.N.Y., Columbia Teachers College, N.Y.U., Univ. de Rennes, Univ. tions. Though by no means a radical, de Grenoble; major, English. Exp. teaching high school shorthand, typing; head translator & head of business de was often vanguard Cabot found in the partment in bank; accounting, typing; Spanish trade. Speaks French, Spanish, German. Wants also research, or position in Mrs. Otelia Augspurger mother three of progressive thought because provoca Compton, of college as house dean or chaperon. noted $BK sons, was chosen this spring as the 217. (Miss, N. J.) A.B., Boston Univ. '17; M.A., Penn. tive ideas so fired his imagina ^ readily State '34; major, French; minor, music. Exp. teaching American Mother for 1939. The family group is tion. French; translating; secretarial. Travel in Europe & America. shown above seated, Airs. Compton, Professor Wants position as companion-secretary. For him the test of idea was Elias Compton (< B K educator who died every its Wooster), Teaching See also 154, 214 in Mrs. Charles H. Rice Elesa to add to human stature. May of 1938; {Mary capacity 92. (Miss, Brooklyn) A.B., Brown '06, M.A. '07; study at Syracuse, Columbia; English, phonetics, public speaking, Compton, graduated magna cum laude), whose Through each in his individual growing, French, shorthand. Exp. teaching high school Latin, also a member husband, of the Wooster Chapter, is 14 yrs. asst. in research on legal education in U. S. way, man expresses his reverence for English; Wants teach proctor similar work. head of Christian College, Allahabad, India. Stand shorthand, examinations, God. In in in in 218. (Miss, Nebr.) Normal School '10; A.B., Univ. of left to are Wilson Martindale Compton education, work, play, ing, right, Nebraska '22, M.A. '25; major, English; minors, Latin, in in one and comparative literature; yr. toward Ph.D. in English & ($BK Wooster), lawyer, economist, and general love, worship, art, grows, philosophy. Exp. 3 yrs. rural & grade teaching, 4^2 yrs. manager the National Lumber Manufacturers perhaps music. of especially in Ascetic high school teaching, 1 yr. high school principal, 4 yrs. con Association in Karl Taylor Compton solidated school principal, 4 yrs. Univ. of South Dakota Washington; discipline too is required for growth; training school; tutoring English & Latin; directing dra president the ($BK Princeton), of Massachusetts matics; coaching public speech. Wants teach Bible & litera Richard Cabot had as little use for self- ture in small care for children in Institute of Technology; and Arthur Holly Compton college; home, preferably indulgence as did the New England orphans. ($BK Wooster), professor of physics at the Uni 219. Dr. Oakley C. Johnson, 380 Riverside Dr., N. Y. C of Univ. of Michigan '20, M.A. Ph.D. . old. if growth requires A.B., '21, major. versity of Chicago and Nobel Prize winner in 1927 Puritans Yet '28; English. Exp. 12J4 yrs. teaching college composition & the Margaret Hutch Mrs. Karl T. Compton, former self-discipline it likewise requires liberty. literature; writing textbooks, articles, reviews; editing; lecturing. Travel abroad. is a member the Minnesota Chapter. inson, of wanted and and He morality freedom, 220. (Mr., N. Y. C.) A.B., M.A., Ph.D. Columbia; major, mathematics. Exp. writing. he fought for both. editing, Wants also editing, writing, or position where mathematics is involved. 221. Miss Ruth Redding, 3815 Farragut Richard Cabot did all that he did Rd Brooklyn, N.Y. A.B., Wheaton '34; M.A., Columbia Teachers College Richard C. Cabot with gusto. He in '36; major, French; minors, German, psychology, education; found his teaching, '37 joy exchange fellow in France '38, taught English in lycee. in social service, in writing his score of Exp. 2 yrs. teaching; translating, manuscript typing, GORDON VV. ALLPORT, proofreading, tutoring, research, camp counselor. well-known books, and happiness in his 78. (Mr., N. Y. C.) A.B., C.C.N.Y. '36; majors, English, Latin, French; minors, mathematics, history, physical $ B K Harvard enthusiasms and admirations. many science; graduate study in English, Columbia. Exp. \}4 yrs. as research asst.; 3 yrs. teaching preparatory school Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard His course was steadfast. Yet self-assured English, mathematics, history, Latin; mimeographing, clerical. Wants also work in and tenacious as he was he could yield typing, library, museum, pub lishing, college office, book store; research. physician-philos clerical; Richard Cabot, 222. Mr. F. E. 187 W. suddenly in the course of a battle and Thornton, Frambes Ave., Colum bus, Ohio. A.B., West Virginia '29; Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsyl opher, died at his home in right." say, "I am wrong, you were vania '35; member Sigma Xi. Exp. student asst., college Cambridge on 7, 1939, in his & university instructor in zoology, physiology. May And when he admitted his mistakes of 223. Miss Norma Wallach, 1027 Leggett Ave., N. Y. C. Exp.- seventy-first year. In his last will and A.B., Hunter '38; major, chemistry. tutoring, judgment he admitted them whole library. Wants also tutoring, work in chemistry, anvthing testament he declared that his life had 224. (Mrs., N. Y.C.) A.B., Radcliffe M.A. com heartedly. He taught others to learn '35, '37, by plete residence requirements for Ph.D.; major, philosophy; unbroken '37 been one of "almost happi '38 at College de Exp. their errors as he learned his. In all study France. tutoring philoso
ness." by phy, Latin, French, German, Russian, Hebrew; asst. in Others would add that it was also that he did he was a magnanimous man. doctor's office, secretarial, social work, retail selling. Wants also research, translating, public one of unbroken service to humanity, for writing, relations, secre Editor's Note. Richard Clarke Cabot tarial, museum work. he had devoted himself with all his 22S. Miss Alice Crawford, 202 Edison Ave., New Castle, was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 21, 1868. Pa. A.B., West Virginia Univ. '36; M.A. in French, North talents to the con western Univ. '38; 1 semester, teachers college. singularly effective He held the degrees of A.B. and M.D. from Provisional certificate to teach French, English, social studies. Exp. of human life. and was elected to $BK there in & serving and bettering Harvard, practice_ substitute_ teaching. Typing ability. Wants also translating; work in library, travel bureau, export house. written in a 1889. his later years at Harvard he His many books, lively During served as professor of both clinical medicine and General See also 92, 218, 219, 223 and gracious style, show how richly his social ethics. 225. Mr. Philip Ash, 601 W. 180th St., N.Y.C. B.S. in life-work combined the values of science psychology, C.C.N.Y. '38; now at New School for Social Research. yrs. Exp. \)i research; 6 months clinical work; of art. and appli social with the values Theory tutoring, investigation. Wants position with oppor tunity for further study. were for him inextricable. cation 226. (Mr., N. Y. C.) B.S. in social science, C.C.X.Y. '38. Second year medical student ($ B K 1937, Exp. economic research, finance, statistics, proofreading. To him problems of were morality C.C.N.Y.) needs loan of 3500 to continue his study through Typing Sc bookkeeping ability. the present year; maintained A average as undergraduate, is 227. Univ. of pre-eminent. The Right and (Mr., Chicago) A.B., Pennsylvania; M.A., Meaning of now of and awarded head class has been 3250 city scholarship Ph.D., Columbia. Speciality social & historical aspects of ex toward tuition. will as to and also gives comprehensive Educators testify ability technology, human geography, languages, statistics. Wrong (1933) character. * B yrs. Address Member 229, K, 12 East 44th Street, Exp. 6 teaching college sociology & other social which pression to his own ethical code New York, N. Y. sciences; typing, writing, research. www.pbk.org [4] THE KEY REPORTER Autumn, 1939
N.Y. Troy Charles S. Aldrich invited. The new members are in The Defense Program Utica Henry T. Dorrance cap N. D. Grand Forks William G. Bek and gown and enter in an academic Ohio Cincinnati Murray Seasongood ton Winchell Berber Okla. Law Fay procession supported by a fair repre To date approximately $38,000 has Pa. Bethlehem Robert E. Laramy Reading Robert S. Birch sentation of the faculty. The annual been subscribed in New York City Tex. Laredo Valentine L. Puig Palestine Eugene R. Fish $ B K oration is delivered a distin to the K for the by B Defense Fund Victoria William T. Riviere Wichita Falls Mrs. Wayne Somerville guished speaker. The presidents Humanities and Intellectual Freedom. visiting Vt. Arlington Mrs. Dorothy Canfield F sher Students' of the two Associations make about half the members in the Montpelier Fred H, Howland Only Va. Richmond W. H. Schwarzschild, Jr. short (and invariably good) speeches City have as yet been seen, and most of Wash. Aberdeen Lewis C. Tidball Walla Walla William R. Davis and, as the candidates file past them, the potentially large gifts are not being W. Va. Wheeling Charles McCamic present the keys amid applause of un solicited until the balance needed to mistakable sincerity. An attendance of achieve the $300,000 goal has become 600 at the is not uncommon. evident. meeting Fellow Students Present There can be no question of the value Committees arc being set up in every to the College and to the of this community. Each member expect Society may Keys plan." Defense" "Rochester It has in to receive a "To the booklet notably creased undergraduate interest in $ B K and a personal visit. The visitor can be RICHARD L. GREENE, and in those elected, making the stu made happy either by a contribution or * B K Rochester dents as some have expressed some other expression of apprecia feel, it, by The actual process of pos obtaining (hat the election amounts to tion of his work for $BK. The visits "really session of a $BK is at all." key many after The campus news should be completed as this fall as something early colleges an informal one. It "exclusive" extremely papers are eager to run an possible in order to leave time to obtain was so at the of Rochester University on the election each year, and the large gifts so that and the totals for story they until a few years ago. each and chapter community, State, It was the students themselves who can be announced at the dinner on big suggested a change in procedure and 20. In published reports also February carried it out with the active help of each gift will be credited to the chapter, Professor Clarence King Moore, for the State, and the community. merly secretary of the Chapter. The The Defense Program is Students' stimulating Associations of the two co new life in $ B K. Dr. the gen Finley, ordinate colleges for men and women, eral is en chairman, receiving many deciding that high scholar letters. A Missouri chairman couraging ship was an activity as de 'T am in accord with the writes, hearty serving of reward as ath idea that
The standards $BK has consistently main and to present them pub neither the nor the individual tained public licly. This action at once dares discard, lest disintegration of all we most met with the enthusiastic cherish in our civilization set in with a venge approval of the the ance. * B K being what it is, the Defense Chapter, Fund appears inevitable. I have thoroughly faculty, and, of course, the enjoyed and benefitted from The Key Re initiates. It shows every sign porter through the years. I am grateful for of being continued indefi any opportunity to repay some of the debt I nitely. owe $BK. The expressed wish of the
Chairmen appointed to date are listed students for wider public
below. Other names will appear in later recognition of the honor of
issues. Volunteer assistants should report election to $ B K has led the
to the local chairman or to Dr. John H. Chapter to provide an eve
Finley, 12 E. 44th St., New York City. ning's exercises for which a
Conn. Storrs W. H. Carter place is reserved each April Fla. Gainesville Jno. J. Tigert Ga. Atlanta Thomas B. Higdon in the University calendar. Ind. Gary Glenn 0. Rearick Indianapolis Hugh McK. I.andon The initiation ceremonies Lafayette Cable G. Ball Ky. Covington Glenn 0. Swing are held in the late after Albert R. Evans Williamsburg and the new members La. Lafayette Albert P. Elliott noon, Md. Frederick Joseph H. Apple are then entertained the Mich. Houghton Mrs. Herma G. Baggley by Marquette Charles C. Spooner Chapter at a dinner to which Miss. Columbus Mrs. B. L. Parkinson Gulfport Edward Price Bell all members of $ B K in Jackson James A. Blalock University Victor A. Coulter Rochester and vicinity are Mo. Joplin Howard Alan Thorpe Springfield Francis T. H'Doiibler invited. The company ad N.J. Somers Point Arthur S. Chenoweth journs to a college audi Toms River Charles A. Morris N. Y. Beacon Mrs. M. Smith Webb Phi Panhel torium for the public pro Beta Kappa'sfounding is depicted in a colorful mural in the Buffalo Niles Carpenter Society' Eight of the sfounders appear in this Johannes 0. \ Glens Falls Frederick B. Richards ceedings, to which the fel painting by Monticello Bernard Weiss of B K, John Marshall (signing the document), William Short, Archi N. Y. C. area Dave Hennen Morris low-students and families of Apollo Room the Raleigh Tavern Above tl Olean Wm. C. Greenawalt of in Williamsburg, Virginia. Seneca the initiates are Falls Elmer C. Wayne www.pbk.speciallyorg and Mary, the oldest college structure in America, and ti Autumn, 1939 THE KEY REPORTER [5]
"powerful," "invaluable," "pungent," released to them before it news is is Make Now Reservations "epoch-making," riven to the city papers, which are even as a picture of eager. Student activities are the common life in the South. I wonder equally New York City's second largest not the under review at many colleges, and if many people who have read dinner over 3,000 and many everywhere the key-word is "co-ordina book and have heard all this about it, turned the $ B K dinner at the tion." away It would be hard to find a better feel the same emotional reluctance Hotel Astor last February 20, will be example of co-ordination than this plan, about reading it which I had. duplicated next February 20 (1940). was the whereby college, honorary society, and What did I expect? What Again many noted members will be on the self-governing body of all the stu slight anticipatory distaste that was in the program and among the guests; dents join in paying a tribute, at once mind, which I imagine may be in chapters and associations will be invited my ceremonial and practical, to success in the minds of many Americans? Was it to send official delegates, their college the most important activity of college fear that I was to be subjected to yet banners and State flags; and the vital men and women the pursuit of another kind of propaganda, so un theme to be announced for the occasion knowledge. familiar and subtle that it might be hard will not exclude entertainment. The to penetrate and resist? Was it the jollity last February under the chair simpler, more natural human dread of To OBKs in Who's Who manships of Dr. Finley and Dr. Angell plunged these stories yet deeper gave the death thrust to the old canard being by Help the cause the editors into the flood of hopeless human misery, by asking of $ B K stodginess. Kappa" to include "Phi Beta in which inundates our consciousness in Members may bring guests. Reserva your write-up. There are 5,469 $BKs these days? Did I iinagine that landlords tions for individuals or groups or for in Who's Who, an average of 1 in 6 or of and employers were to be presented as tables of ten will . be accepted by the more than 2 on every page of the volume. wilful oppressors instead of as the Editor of The Key Reporter up to the bewildered fellowmen they are? capacity of the rooms available. Whatever it was, it vanished with the first of these life-stories I read, the one
to which the book chanced to fall open Books to Own in my hands, "From Grease Monkey to Knitter." I passed from that to "A Day The Book Committee: Canfield House," Dorothy at Kate Brumby's and then, Fisher, Will D. Howe, Burton E. Liv enormously interested, surprised, in ingston, Robert A. Millikan, credulous, flicked over the pages and Irita Van Doren. choosing at random fell upon the high Ways." For the reader's convenience orders comedy of "Easier Then I laid for books or magazines will be any down the book to laugh at the lears filled prepaid by The Key Re which had kept me from it. But porter. A free introductory per reading I insist that the fault with the kind of sonal or gift subscription to The lay American Scholar will be sent with praise that has been given this collec
order at least $6.00. any of tion. The two words which best and most completely describe it were not These Are Our among the many I had heard. Those
"human" "authentic." words are and Lives Authentic first: the first impression, the final impression made on the reader University of North Carolina these life stories is that are Press, Chapel Hill, 1939. $2. by they true, that they have not been doctored to Most people who keep make them prove anything, either by track of publishing news at the person who took them down in their all know now from reviews rambling, deliriously folksy lingo, or by and other comments that any editor in the W.P.A. office. I have the volume called These are never set foot in the deep South myself, Our Lives is a collection of I know nothing about the life of the thirty-five life-stories, chosen working people there. I do not need from many more told by such special knowledge, only experience wage-earning men and of life itself to feel that this volume is women living in North Caro authentic. It has that unmistakable ac lina, Tennessee and Georgia cent of natural, unforced truth-telling to W.P.A. workers on the which speaks out an Writers' from honest voice, a Federal project in clear and honest eye. And how those three States. Most peo racy with the rich diversity of humanness are ple also (I am judging by these tales ! With what easy power they my own experience) know Illinois. tear down out of the mind the and Sigma Alpha Epsilon's Eevere Memorial Temple in Evanston, that these brief autobio cheap president people" as John the first foolish idea that "poor see grouped about the table are identified Heath, graphical studies have been dif the scene is in the id Washington. In accordance with tradition, from other people Bushrod praised early read ferent ! Here are we, at the College William highly by picture the Sir Christopher Wren Building of "vivid," "graphic," of as we would be if we had Bruton Parish Chapel. ers as ourselves, iow room be seen the of the may www.pbk.org [6] THE KEY REPORTER Autumn, 1939
been born Southern wage-earners, white stances Favorable to the Progress of cratic faith than the fact of dictatorship. America," or black as we are. Those commenta Literature in when General At the same time no social fact is more tors who have exclaimed that this book La Fayette was present. commonly misunderstood. There are "invaluable" "vivid" contained and A notable event in $ B K history is still men in high places, for example, "pungent" and stuff are right. But first sketched in a letter of August 15, 1831, who regard the rise to power of Musso of all these should have told us that it is to his brother Edward. Referring to lini in Italy and of Hitler in Germany as the very stuff of living. John Quincy Adams, Emerson writes: a sort of protest the protest of peoples Dorothy Canfield Fisher who feel have a grievance I heard him speak a good deal at two special they against
meetings of * B K lately. He is antimason & the nations that dictated the terms of the the * B K have been convened to consider Versailles Treaty. To men of this frame whether will not alter their constitution & The Letters of they of mind the specific to be used against dictatorship is a simple one: remove the Ralph Waldo Emerson grievance by just the right amount of "appeasement" and you remove the
Edited by Ralph L. Rusk. Columbia dictator. It's as simple as all that!
University Press, New Tork, 1939. Six Such misconceptions can be cleared $30. volumes, away only by careful analytical thinking that appreciates the of This most noted of $ B K orators lives complexity social causation and some of again from his 11th to his 78th year in has idea historical continuity. the 2,584 letters printed in the 3,200 pages It is because fifteen essays contained the present of these six handsome volumes. The in volume (a revised and enlarged edition editor ($ B K Indiana) writes in his greatly of an earlier work of the same Introduction (54 pages): title, now out of print) are distinguished by think The letters, with their changing moods and of this kind that deserve to be temperamental varieties of style, give us, no ing they doubt, the most valuable glimpses we can hope read by everyone who enjoys, and would to have of the essential personality of Emerson. like to retain, the greatest possible free But are perhaps important for the they equally dom in ordering his life and affairs. light they throw on the events of his life, the enough, the book itself genesis of his ideas, and the slow growth of his Interestingly is a good example of the democratic addresses, essays, and poems. way of doing things. In the hands of another The letters and the excellent foot abolish secrets & obligations &c & fine meeting editor a sociologist, let us say, with a we had the speakers A H & E Everett notes, which to make the being help greatly passion for and integration author"Judges Story & Jackson & Davis J Q, unity reader with the "contemporary Adams, C. G. Loring, Dr Lowell Theoph each contributor would have been told of the contain more than two letters, more, and in conclusion we Parsons & many substantially what he was to say. He score references to $ B K. Emerson al accepted report wh. made the changes & takes
makes 3 of the votes a suffi ways told his brothers who had been away the veto, & 4 cient & takes off the injunction of chosen as orator and poet for "$BK majority secrecy. Kent of is poet for the Anniv. day" "day" Duxbury at Harvard, a mentioned in J. T. Austin, orator. Colonial iHlan^ton letters to Margaret Fuller, James Rus The letter goes on to reveal Emer sell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, Built about 1750 breadth of interest: Bronson Alcott, and others. Much light son's Home of founders of Phi Beta is thrown on the famous oration deliv Sad political disclosures every day brings. Scholar," 60 acres high me dishonored that such poor Kappa; extending ered in 1837, "The American Wo is my country to wretches should sit in the chairs of Washington way waterfront; boat harbor; which gave the title to $ B K's present Franklin & Adams. How doth the air now historic Virginia, magnificent lo quarterly. That this best known of the thunder with that once despised whisper "You cation; in excellent preservation. thousand *BK orations was a many cant make a whistle out of &c I am trying to Very moderately priced. C. W. and almost failed to be even learn my own latitude but there is no horizon in stop-gap, E. Franklin C. St. If I was richer I wd. have an observatory. Marston, 615 St., that, is revealed by the letters. On June I am trying to learn the ethical truths that Richmond, Virginia. 22, 1837, Emerson was asked to substi always allure me from my cradle till now & yet tute for the Reverend Dr. Wainwright, how slowly disclosed ! That word Compensations who had cancelled his engagement as is one of the watchwords of my spiritual world chance sorrow & hope do not the orator for the anniversary on August & time & & their revelations abate curiosity. 31st. On June 19 Emerson had written by my of feeble health and on August 7: "All WE HAVE IT! very well except that we cannot get any in the word from Olympus any Periclean word Dictatorship K." for $. B. Yet it was delivered on the Modern World 31st, and removed any doubt Carlyle still had about his young friend. A collection oj essays edited by Guy Stan On other anniversaries Emerson gave ton Minnesota Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Ford. University oj Press, The New "Trade-mark. a second $ B K oration and a poem. He Minneapolis, 1939. S3.50. MAGIC' MARGIN ROYAL PORTABLE writes about several similar perform needs more ROYAL TYPEWRITER CO., Inc. ances others most one No social fact of our time by notably, by 2 Park Avenue, New York, N. Y. peoples of demo Edward Everett on "The Circum to be understood by See Your Nearest Royal Dealer www.pbk.org Autumn. 1939 THE KEY REPORTER [7]
would have had impressed on him the importance of coordinating his ideas
with those of the other contributors so
make of the book a unified whole. NEW HARVARD BOOKS as to
The result would have been a work per
the sweet spirit of vaded by harmony Masters of Dramatic Comedy and practically devoid of intellectual By Henry Ten Eyck Perry. The social role of comedy is the central theme stimulation. of this charming book. Mr. Perry presents a survey of comedy from the Dr. Ford chose to produce a different ancient world down to modern times. $5.00
kind of book. His experience as ad ministrator doubtless suggested to him Catullus in Strange and Distant Britain the wisdom of the he has followed : policy By James A. S. McPeek. Traces the establishment of the thought and ex that of selecting scholars in whom he had pression of Catullus, that exotic flower of Roman civilization, as an insep arable part of British tradition. S5.00 the utmost confidence, telling them in a literary general way what he wanted them to do, and leaving them free to decide for Elizabeth Lloyd and the Whittiers themselves how they would carry out Edited by T. Franklin Currier. This budget of letters from Elizabeth Lloyd the of an of their assignments. The result is a to Whittiers affords a picture of the home life intellectual group people in Philadelphia and depicts the between work that is at once authoritative and young lifelong friendship Whittier and Miss Lloyd. $3.00 thought-provoking. Each contributor is a recognized authority in the subject Medieval Studies in of A. Porter with which he deals; ten of the essays are Memory Kingsley Edited by W. R. W. Koehler. Some of the late Professor Porter's friends written by professors of history, politi have united in honoring his memory by this series of studies in the general cal and economics in science, leading field which claimed his mature interests. Six of the essays are in French, six American universities. And each con in German, one in Italian, and twenty-two in English. 2 vols., $25.00 tributor has something to say that is worth pondering. The task of reconcil Historian and Scientist the divergent points of view that ing By Gaetano Salvemini. "Are history and the social sciences really sci ences?" naturally develop under these condi To this fundamental question underlying all historical scholarship, tions is left entirely to the reader. He is Dr. Salvemini devotes these charmingly lucid pages. $1*75 thus made the beneficiary of a demo cratic form of editorship. Politics, Finance, and Consequences The book opens with a discussion of By Charles Jesse Bullock. Ostensibly, the theme of this book is the an dictatorship" the "pattern of in which cient world, but its real purpose is to demonstrate the ways of politicians with public funds and to focus on the problems of our the light of world is traced the characteristic sequence of day experience. $2.50 processes by which the dictator prepares to assume power, acquires it, and en Justice Miller and the Supreme trenches himself therein. Then follow a Mr. Court Charles Fairman. In the career of this important figure of the number of essays dealing with the By tracing Civil War and Reconstruction Period, Mr. Fairman has made extensive origin, development, structure, and use of Miller's correspondence, as well as newspapers and files of the older functioning of dictatorship in particular law journals. $4.50 countries (Italy, Germany, Soviet Rus Latin and the sia, Turkey, America, The History of an Advertising Agency Far East). We are next told of the tech By Ralph M. Hower. A detailed and documented study of N. W. Ayer & of niques of propaganda and methods Son of Philadelphia from 1869 to the present time. Since the Company economic control employed by the made all its records available, the book provides accurate information. Fascist dictatorships in securing their $4.00 but hold on power. Two important German Financial Policies, 1932-1939 neglected aspects of dictatorship are By Kenyon E. Poole. An examination by a trained economist of the finan treated in the essays on the position of cial structure of the Nazi state up to the spring of the present year, and of of lieutenant women and the role the the problems of finance when a government must do something to alleviate
man" (the "number two exemplified by unemployment though lacking sufficient funds. $3.00 Goering and Ciano) under modern dic tatorships. The book closes, appropri Health at Fifty with a discussion of the Edited William H. "Well ately enough, by Robey, M.D. written, carefully prepared, ac appear and in language understood prospects for democracy as they curate, by the lay man or woman, these lec- tures are instructive. Medical Times. "A most useful book for the today. library.' family New York Times. in $3.00 The prospects for democracy America will depend, in no small meas
on how widespread among our ure, HARVARD people can become an understanding of UNIVERSITY PRESS
set forth in this book. the truths CAMBRIDGE - MASSACHUSETTS Carl S. Joslyn, Professor Sociology, University of Maryland of www.pbk.org [8] THE KEY REPORTER Autumn, 1 939
^Announcing- A NEW EDITION!
For the First Time in 18 Years Only Twice Before in Our History! PHI BETA KAPPA DIRECTORY
A complete new General Catalog of Phi Beta Kappa is being published, listing all 110,000 members elect ed since 1776, with short biographies of all 86,000 living members, including those elected in 1939
All members will be listed alphabetically, for quick and easy reference, indicating their Chapter and College College Degrees Present Occupation" Permanent Address
Date of Death of Those Deceased
Section Save $1.00 N[pw! ORDER FORM by Ordering Phi Beta Kappa Directory Over 1500 pages, beautifully bound in 12 East 44th St., New York City blue cloth. A DeLuxe Edition will also Please enter my order for a copy of the Phi Beta Kappa Directory. I enclose be available at $10, bound in leather, Check for the pre-publication price, or $10 for ? $5, with member's name stamped in gold the DeLuxe Edition [J Please notify me when published and I will send on the cover. $6.00 Name A Ofe*tinae Treasure, for Home, Office or Library! www.pbk.org