THE J^EY ^REPORTER THE PHI BETA KAPPA NEWS MAGAZINE VOLUME II NUMBER 1 This Issue Goes to 75,100 Members WINTER 1937 members of the group. Moreover, the whole sample of 100 Was OBK Worth While? names comprises less than one-sixth of the living membership HAROLD A. LARRABEE, Harvard '16 of the class, which numbers 629 in all. The comparisons of income among the four sample groups Author of What Philosophy Is were made on the basis of replies to an unsigned questionnaire * lready educators who do not hesitate to use what might sent out by a member of the class, to which 70 per cent of the pays" l\ be called the "scholarship argument have class replied, giving figures concerning their receipts in the Tunis' begun to quote passages consideration all averages of ,_ A. from John R. pro year 1934. Add to this the that While?* vocative volume entitled Was College Worth Since as few as 25 items may be seriously distorted by the extreme <pBK audiences are likely to hear a good cases at the ends of the income-scale, deal more about this stimulating study and the reasons for distrusting Mr. Tunis' of the Harvard class of 1911 twenty-five conclusions, simply from ele years after graduation, it may be worth mentary statistical caution, begin to be our while to see exactly what Mr. Tunis apparent. has to report and what his results may But one might waive all such doubts be said to prove. For it may be that they and accept the quoted statements at are open to interpretations very different their face value, yet still question the "moral" from those which have so far been alleged significance of the placed upon them. commonly drawn from them, for one The sentences which seem to be of the most striking revelations made by doomed to extensive quotation in future Mr. Tunis is that in 1934 the total yearly exhortations to lagging college students earnings of the class of 1911 probably are the following: Of the four groups averaged less than $4,000 per man. sampled the athletes, the $BK men, {Continued on page 6) the clubmen, and the average un heard-of men OBK Satirized financially the Phi Beta Kappas lead the field, and not by a small margin. ... If you desire HOWARD CUSHMAN to be prominent and well known in later life, it seems to pay to make Phi Beta Kappa when in he key of <BK an over-sized college. Possibly this class is not an exact papier-mache replica three feet criterion, but if it is, you had better urge your son to give up football practice and concentrate TJL longi was lightheartedly intro upon his courses. The earnings of the Phi Beta Kappa men from duced into the recent production of the Living Newspaper of our class appearing in Who's Who averaged recently over $6,000 a year, the WPA Federal Theatre. This unexpected event transpires well above the average class income. ... It seems as if the men who resolutely refused to go all out for money are actually better off finan in an otherwise grim labor production called Injunction than of us who did. cially many Granted! which ran for twelve weeks at the Biltmore Theatre Superficially considered, the case for the cash-value of the in New York City. key would seem to be surprisingly confirmed, but a closer Injunction Granted! and the Living Newspaper require a examination of the data raises certain doubts. In the first little explaining. The Living Newspaper is a Federal Theatre place Mr. Tunis, who is often distressingly vague about his project unique to New York City and is sponsored by the New methods, describes his technique of sampling thus: York Newspaper Guild, an A. F. of L. union of editorial workers. Its several productions this year In order to obtain some basis of comparison between then and now, I dug have been liberal out an old Class Album issued our senior year in and picked at and intense dramatization of college, controversial news subjects, random a hundred names from four different groups. an adaptation of the March of Time technique to the this means 25 names from each group. Since use of actors in a theatre. Apparently only living The actors, of course, as 27 members of the class of 1911 were elected to a well as the $BK, Living Newspaper's staff of playwrights and sample" must include all the research "random of 25 practically living workers are drawn mostly from the relief rolls. 6* 1936. ($Z). In Injunction Granted! latest of its News- *Harcourt, Brace Company, New York, , bills, the Living " In this Issue: "Mark-Grabbers Not Wanted Reviews of American Acres, Kittredge's Shakespeare, Wheelock 's Poems CHAPTERS OF PHI BETA KAPPA in and PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED December, March, May September, at the Rumford Press, Concord, N. H. New N. T. <i> Editorial and executive offices, 145 West 55th Street, Tork, Editor, William A. Shimer, Harvard B K; Consulting Editor, Clark S. Cornell * B K; Advertising Manager, John ^ellner. Rates upon application. Subscription 20 cents a year, $1.00 for five years. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Concord, N. H., under Act of March 3, 1879. POSTMASTER: il undeliverable at yogr office and addressee's new address is please known, foiward, rated with postage due to cover charge. forwarding Undeliverable copies should be sent to: PHI BETA org KAPPA, 145 West 55th Street, New York, N. Y. www.pbk. Forwarding and return www.pbk. postage guaranteed. [2] THE KEY REPORTER Winter, 1937 rolls down paper attempted a dramatized of for this one-half of one per cent of our popula Clown ramp, murmuring "Crackdown! history Crackdown!" tion to to strangle the rest of us into off ramp at center. the relation of American labor to the try landing submission by such means as these ! anti-labor Here it must be acknowledged that courts, stressing injunctions, Worker enters left and crosses to right on next Newspaper lapsed repressive legislation, and the invalida lines. the Living from its tion by the courts of legislation favorable Worker. The funny part of it is that he's usual insistence on authenticity in right, ! The question is, who is recorded speeches and events. to labor. That was Injunction Granted! , a absolutely only The the one-half of one per cent? The sixty million series of stylized scenes record shows (and the California rapid thirty livin' Monthly people who work for a and want to get the case for labor and was the source of the research) that in summing up paid for that work or the small minority that 1934 General a cast of . against the courts. With 100 are out to see that they don't! . There may July Johnson, California "scenes" be a lot of things with the but his spoke in the Greek theatre on the die play is acted in nearly 100 wrong guy, '15, mathematics is just about perfect! campus where nineteen or groupings and 500 lighting cues on a Berkeley years Light on where the president the up lop ramp, of earlier taken single unit set. he had his doctorate. University of California beckons to Johnson, who address organs and liberal audiences this public Johnson Liberal ascends ramp to position just below him. Preceding was elected to alumni acclaimed the production vociferously; University President. GeneralJohnson, the membership in of California is honored to present $BK in a presided over anti-Administration critics saw in the University ceremony by of Kappa to you today this key the Phi Beta Dr. Franz associate professor play the use of government funds to Schneider, Society. "radical" of German and president of the promote so-called dra U. C. ideas; Clown opens hatch between Johnson and President Chapter of the Society. The matic critics, even while disagreeing and hands Johnson large Phi Beta Kappa key. Living used this event ... Newspaper's dramatists with the play's argument, generally Worker {as tableau is held). for profi in mathematics ! Worker goes right. as the basis of the presentation on regarded the technique and presenta ciency off key Voice of Living Newspaper {Loudspeaker). the in program tion an experiment done stage, its indicating (and interesting General Johnson resigns as NRA Administra that the presentation with considerable skill. inadvertently) tor. Donald S. Richberg replaces him. was made the president of the Uni As in all Living Newspaper produc University President goes off ramp. Clown strikes by Johnson over head with slapstick. Johnson goes off. of California. tions, public figures were presented on versity the stage speaking authentic lines as reported in their public utterances, "Mark-Grabbers" among whom appeared Hugh S. John Not Wanted son, introduced as administrator of the in 1935 a square N.R.A., guaranteeing A n effort to exclude from $ B K preliminary meeting the names of those "mark-grabbers" deal to labor. "The right to strike stu- /\ the and Seniors who, by unanimous consent of !" is like the law of self-defense inviolate, J_ \, dents unable to excel in ad the committee, are regarded as ob boomed the stage caricature of Johnson, vanced courses and to include the viously unqualified for election to the so occasional genuine scholar who for good ciety may be removed from the list. reason may fall below an arbitrary grade "Each member of the committee shall standard, is evident in the following then proceed to learn all he can re excerpts from a revision of the Colby garding the qualifications of the students Chapter By-Laws as reported by the assigned to him.