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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1898)
Vout. VIL. No. 22. NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1898, Price Tren Crnrts, FROM PROFESSOR BEERS, THE FOUR SENIOR BOARDS. A Plain Statement in Reply to ‘Iamson. B. M. ; ie 7 Governor hae ed ogre oe Gay. H Age oe I s : ALL Le me we we ee gs ee oe Bil dwtl: ; [Governor ee eer is found in another BY. Rogers. J.8. BEBEOU: Ch. J.S. Rogers. G. Morris. To the Editor of YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY: Sir: I see by the New York Times of this date, that Mr. Daniel H. Cham- berlain is now worrying the alumni of Central and Western Massachusetts, as he has worried the New York alumni for several years, about the alleged neglect of English ‘study at Yale. When you invited me last year to reply to some comments of his, upon a letter of mine in the WEEKLY, I told you that I did not think any reply was called for. Perhaps, however, it is time to take some notice of Mr. Chamberlain’s criti- cisms. The Massachusetts alumni are not as much accustomed to his rhetoric as the New York alumni are, and might be in danger of taking it seriously. What I say, I say in defense of the College, not of myself. Personally I care nothing about his opinion. “The head of the English department at Yale,” says Mr. Chamberlain, ‘‘pro- claims his opinion that there should be no requirement whatever of English in the Yale course.”’ That is right: I do so proclaim it. I think that the study of English—and of many other subjects in the present required course —should be made elective. “Whether he would have any requirement of English for entrance to Yale, I don’t know,” pursues Mr. Chamberlain. I will refer him to an article on that sub- ject which I contributed to the Educa- tional Review for May, 1892, in which I gave, at some length, my. reasons for thinking an entrance requirement in English unnecessary. I have not changed my mind on this subject. “He further thinks,” says Mr. Cham- berlain, “as do other Yale professors, that English cannot be taught, as an ordinary study, at all.” O no, I have never said or thought anything of the kind. I have been teaching—or trying to teach—English, “as an ordinary study,” for a quarter of a century, with results, I confess, unsatisfactory to Mr. Chamberlain, but that I can’t help. It is not likely that I should undervalue a pursuit to which my life—whether successfully or not—has been given. “The whole Department,” continues Mr. Chamberlain, “counts but one man, one only, who is a good teacher of English, and this man has been under what I might call disgrace at the hands of the powers that be, and is under- stood to be now watched with jealousy lest he should indeed popularize the study of English.” I will not comment upon the discourtesy of this to my col- leagues and myself, but I am sure that the gentleman who is made the vic- tim of this awkward compliment will be the first to resent the bad taste with which it is expressed. For obvious reasons, it would be unbecoming in me to discuss the question whether the English teaching at Yale is good or bad in quality, but I am sure that there is no disposition to neglect the subject. The College makes as generous vrovi- sion for it as it is able to do with the funds in hand and with the pressure of other studies for recognition in our somewhat crowded required curriculum. Now as to the two “highly endowed chairs” waiting to be filled. The Lamp- son endowment has not yet been paid in. It is in litigation and may be so for a year or two longer. That the Emily Sanford chair is still vacant, is not the fault of the Faculty. “It has been offer- ed in turn to three gentlemen, any one of whom would have been an ornament F. Wickes, Ch. _ §. R. Kennedy. M. Delano E. W. Burlingame. P. W. Hamill, B. M. P. G. Hinsdale. S. W. Jackson. E. T. Howes (S.) G. B. Rhodes. R. M. Crosby, Ch. J.H. Scranton. G. Morris. D. D. Burrell, B. M. A. D. Baldwin. EK. C. Streeter, F. A. Lord, Ch. to the College, and has been declined by all of them. Mr. Chamberlain, who has been deluging people in New Haven with private letters on this sub- ject, was asked by one correspondent to suggest a candidate. He nominated his own brother, the Rev. Leander Chamberlain, and Col. Homer B. Sprague. I have heard it hinted by the wicked that Mr. Chamberlain’s real candidate was some one even more nearly related to himself. But this I can hardly believe. He must know that a college professorship is not a very highly salaried position: not nearly so profitable as some other positions which ex-Governor Chamberlain has occupied. : Yours, Henry A. BEErs. New Haven, Feb. 17, 1808. @ 2 et ~~ “News” Elections, The following elections to the edi- torial board of the Yale News were announced last Monday: From 1900— Edward Belden Greene, of Cleveland, Ohio; Burns Henry, of Pittsburg, Pa.; George Nelson Crouse, 1900S., of Syracuse, N. Y. From 1901—George Peters Chittenden, of New York City; BAe Arnold Welch, of Cleveland, id. THE COLLEGE PAPERS, A Review of the Record of Each Board’s Work. All the college papers change edi- torial boards this month, with the ex- ception of the Record. The Senior boards of the four papers are illustrated in this issue. In the article that fol- lows a brief but comprehensive sketch of the particular record of each editorial board is given. College journalism is an extremely important factor in college life. It is intended by this article to give a resume of its condition for the past year. YALE DAILY NEWS. - The Ninety-Eight News board took eontrol of the paper under conditions slightly differing from those of their immediate predecessors. The differ- ence lay in the resumption of the cus- tom of having but one chairman and in the reduction of the number of Senior editors from ten to nine. These changes resulted in a practical return to the ideas of the Ninety-Six board in regard to the internal management of the News. It then gradually became ap- parent that the competition for positions on the paper was still too hard, and took up far too much of a man’s time. It was difficult to remedy these faults in the midst of the contest going on during the Spring term, but plans were made to have the new workers in the Fall start under better conditions. The natural way to do this seemed to be to reduce the amount of useless work done by “heelers.”” This could most easily be done by having an editor in the office write up some subject that came up every week, and was handed in unfailingly by every contributor. In other words, have one man do well what many men did poorly. To this end the different athletic organizations, the religious doings, the debating work and the rest of the routine news were assigned to associate News editors, and the “heelers” were excused from get- ting them. This lessened greatly the amount of mere mechanical work re- quired and gave more opportunity for original and well-written articles. In connection with the News, another change was made regarding the Col- lege correspondents of outside news- papers. It was felt that most of the harmful stories from New Haven re- [Continued on 6th page.]
