THE KEY REPORTER THE PHI BETA KAPPA NEWS MAGAZINE VOLUME IV NUMBER This Issue Goes to 83*000 Members SPRING 1939 PHI BETA KAPPA DEFENSE FUND FOR THE HUMANITIES AND INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM World Crisis Challenges OBK Senate to stand firmlv lor our tradi tional high ideals, to relax not one jot or tittle of our ef JOHN If. FINLEY forts and services, to ad National tBK Defense Fund Chairman, vance our colors and to chal lenge openly the forces that The Senate of $ B K reacted vigorously at its December are attempting to disinte meeting to the threat which nationalism and material grate democratic principles ism are making upon freedom of thought and breadth of and to cheapen the proc scholarship at home and in other parts of the world. esses of cultural education. Two most unusual resolutions were passed to reinspect a The Senate of $ B K has college and a university where it is feared that high scholastic undertaken to raise a capital standards have been lowered to the point where the chapters fund to keep our work vital should be withdrawn, and to raise a capital fund of $150,000 at this time of crisis. It is a to $300,000 to enable the Society to maintain its service to duty which the choice mem scholarship and democratic freedom in America on the bership of this honored So present high level, without fear for the future or compromise ciety owes American democ with the present. racy and world scholarship. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, The fundamental significance of these two actions is inter Will you not help by your 1>BK Brown, Honorary Chairman, preted in articles on pages 2 and 3. These two gifts and your service to fully actions, Sponsoring Committee, 'P R K Defense taken at the same meeting, though widely different in char gather this fund? Fund. acter, reveal daring and a singleness of purpose. They serve notice that $ B K does not Our Campaign for Funds rest upon dusty laurels of the in these days past, but JOHN KIRKLAND CLARK, $ B K Tale of confusion and strife it Chairman, Executive Committee, 4> B K Defense Fund enters the energetically Chairman of the Phi Beta Kappa Foundation arena of present conflict prepared to do battle val IF intellectual freedom means anything if it is to be iantly for the high ideals of preserved, it must be fought for. $ B K is the natural broad culture, of sound leader in that fight as is shown by its history in leading scholarship and of demo the contest for broad, general culture. It cannot lead without cratic freedom. resources. It needs support from its members and friends to It does not suffice for carry on this fight continuously and successfully. A careful America's leading schol computation has led the Senate at its December meeting to arly society to regret and the unanimous conclusion that SI 50,000 should be raised at deplore the destructive once toward an ultimate goal of S300.000. force in the world today. The challenge to intellectual liberty and freedom of John H. Finley It is our duty and privilege thought, of speech and of worship the ideals of *BK Notable OBK Dinner, Hotel Astor, February 20th John H. Finley, Dorothy Thompson, Joseph Bentonelli, Clifton Fadiman, et al. See page 4 PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED CHAPTERS OF PHI BETA KAPPA in November, February, May and September, at the Rumford Press, Concord. N. H. East 44th New N. Y. William A. Harvard * B Assistant E. Editorial and executive offices, 12 Street, York, Editor, Shimer, K; Editor, Dorothy Blair; Consulting Editor, Frank P. Graves, President of the United Chapters. Adver rales upon application. Subscription cents a tising 20 year, SI.00for five years. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Con cord, N. H., under Act of March 3, 1879. If undeliverable at POSTMASTER: your office and addressee's new address Is please known, forward, rated 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 Spring, 1939 overshadows even the challenge to democracy as a political system. It A Strategic Position Fortified cannot be met by armed forces as FRANK PIERREPONT $ B K Columbia may be the course in international de GRAVES, velopments. It cannot be dealt with by New York State Commissioner of Education diplomacy. It calls for a strengthening President of the United Chapters of <i> B K and a widening of efforts on broad fronts Member, Executive Committee, <t> B K Defense Fund of intellectual training. Along these lines, we have made promising progress. Today we are compelled to fight ever established is active today. The in We are resolved, with your support, not again for the Magna Carta of civili vestigations and hearings to be con to slacken or withdraw, but to push zation. A struggle must be made for ducted the Society's Committee on ahead. by individual freedom, which includes free Qualifications will be similar to those During the past ten years, $ B K, dom from restrictions on education and given the scores of institutions through its chapters, its associations, its seeking scholarship quite as much as freedom new chapters and should have a like Senate and its officers, has taken a series from political dictatorship. This freedom effect in raising standards, in strengthen of forward-looking steps to effectuate its is at present dangerously threatened ing the liberal or cultural motives in ideals; to improve the standards of even in America, and $ B K's reaction education, and in providing special liberal, cultural education in our col op has been neither slow nor ineffective. portunities for the superior students. leges and universities by a finer test of A second significant action of the qualifications of new members and of Senate on the same occasion was the institutions seeking or sheltering chap provision for a Committee on the Status ters; and generally to strengthen the of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. This cause of freedom of thought and ex Committee expects to devote two or pression, both in our colleges and in the three years to a thorough designed outside world. study to unite and supplement various partial binder its revised Constitution, broader investigations undertaken other agen powers are now conferred on its Com by cies and to produce a report of such in mittee on Qualifications; its general sight and literary quality that it will quarterly. The American Scholar, is con receive a wide reading not only by stantly gaining strength as one of the educators but by all concerned with the leading reviews of the country; The individual and social consequences of Key Reporter is carrying news of the American secondary and higher educa Society's doings to every member four tion. This study would also guide $ B K times a year; the graduate organiza in selecting colleges for new chapters and tions have been recognized as an in students for membership. tegral part of the Society and are main Frank Pierrepont Graves The new world-wide struggle for taining among the thousands of its freedom cannot hope to salvage civiliza graduates the spirit of the Society. Educators declare that CI> B K now ex tion, except as it seeks the chart of its <fj B K has undertaken a task which ercises perhaps the strongest incentive course in the <I> B K motto, "The love of challenges its to give it membership life." in the country to encourage our thou wisdom is the helmsman of But loyal and substantial support. sand colleges and universities to provide, under the economic and political pres In making this marked progress, we at least for those students who promise sures of today even educators are casting have been handicapped by reduced in to achieve positions of leadership, the the humanities overboard, the come on our well-husbanded invest leaving broad, liberal, thorough education es helm of life at the mercy of this or that ments and by increased costs, unavoid sential to enlightened judgment, good particular skill or technique a pro able in the working out of our program. taste, and social tolerance and vision. ceeding dangerous in uncharted seas. For the past three years we have had to A high-point in that reaction was The chapters of $ B K, with encour appeal to many of our members for reached on December 14th when a score agement from the United Chapters, are contributions to meet annual deficits. 4> of B K Senators, a to the giving attention to means of We feel that the time has come to make devoting day increasing review of the status of scholarship and stimulating interest in liberal education. an appeal to every member to contribute, the work of the Society, unanimously They are favoring honors work, com as generously as possible, so that funds adopted a number of far-reaching reso prehensive examinations, individual may be in hand to carry on our fight, for lutions. The most news-worthy of these, reading periods, and other special op a dozen years at least, and on a perma from the flood of newspaper portunities for the more capable stu nent basis if possible. judging clippings, was the decision to investigate dents. continue to stand firmly for We of the Senate and its committees They a college and a state university that are that basic principle of man's liberty and have toiled faithfully and earnestly.