Vou VILE Novae:
THE CRUISER’S GUNS,
Efforts to Station Them Here-—Can
There Be a Yale Memorial 2
Efforts are being renewed at Wash-
ington to secure the consent of the
Government to locate at New Haven
the guns Eli and Handsome Dan, which
were on the bow of the Cruiser Yale,
as a gift from the University’s students
and graduates. The request is made
on the understanding that the Govern-
ment does not desire to make use of
them on war ships at present, and that
they would be merely stationed here
and subject, at any time, to the call of
the Navy Department.
It having been suggested that a re-
quest from President Dwight to the
officials at Washington would bring
about this result, the President very
readily followed the suggestion, and
sent such a request in his own name.
The request, as the WEEKLY under-
stands it, went, not only to the Secre-
tary of the Navy, but to the Secretary
of War. This request was declined on
the ground that neither of these officials
had power to grant it.
Hearing of this result, Mr. John
Addison Porter, Yale ’78, Secretary of
the President, has again taken up the
matter by interesting the Honorable C-.
A Boutelle, Chairman of the House
Naval Committee, in the subject. Mr.
Boutelle has offered to do all that he
can, and is hopeful that a provision will
be inserted in the naval appropriation
bill, granting to the Navy the authority
to locate these guns at New Haven.
As the readers of the WEEKLY re-
member, the Cruiser Fund Committee,
at its last meeting, voted to leave the
disposition of the surplus fund to a sub-
committee, with power to act. Before
directing this sub-committee to use the
final surplus for some form of memorial,
the general committee had authorized
the expenditure of such a sum as was
necessary to cover the cost of getting
the guns to New Haven, if the Govern-
ment should desire to locate them here.
In accordance with a suggestion from .
Mr. Porter, a statement of the history
of the guns, and the wish of Yale in re-
gard to them, ~has been sent to him by
one of the members of the sub-commit-
tee in order that Mr. Boutelle may make
use of any facts contained therein.
This statement, after reciting the his-
tory of the guns, closes as follows:
“Since the war was finished, the
earnest desire has been expressed by
graduates, undergraduates and officers ©
of Yale, that these two guns, Eli and
Handsome Dan, if not desired by- the
Government for present use on ships of
war, should be located at New Haven,
on or near the Yale Campus, pending
any further active use of them by the
Navy Department. Dr. Timothy
Dwight, President of the University,
has evinced a strong interest in the pro-
ject, and has made, by letter, applica-
tion to the officials at Washington for
the location of the guns at Yale. A
letter has just been received by Mr.
Henderson of the Cruiser Fund Com-
mittee from President Dwight, report-
ing this application on his part and
the refusal of it, on the ground that
there was no authority to grant it.
“Neither President Dwight nor any
other Yale man desires the location of
the guns at Yale, if the Government
desires to make active use of them else-
where. If, however, they are for the
present only to be held in reserve for
possible future use, all are strong in the
belief that to place them at New Haven
would be to impress upon the succes-
sive generations of Yale students the
spirit of Yale loyalty, which prompted
the quick response of men and arms, on
the part of the University and her sons,
to the call of the country.”
The Committee now awaits the action
of the Naval Committee and of Con-
gress, in the matter.
THE QUESTION OF MEMORIALS.
Until this action is decided on, it is
impossible to make any disposition of
the final surplus, as it is impossible to
say what that surplus will be. The hope
is still to be able to devote it to some
kind of a memorial. The Class of
Ninety-Seven has already voted to erect
an independent memorial to the -late
Theodore W. Miller, and expect to
spend a thousand dollars for a memorial
gateway between Durfee and _ the
Chapel. This considerably alters the
situation in regard to a memorial to all
Yale men who fell in the Spanish war,
and makes the eréction of one monu-
ment or gateway of considerable value,
which should memorialize, by proper
inscription, each of the Yale heroes of
the late war, a difficult, if not an im-
possible thing. :
If the plan adopted by the members
of the Class of Ninety-Seven, who have
taken action in the matter, is carried out,
it would seem to mean that, so far as
there are any memorials to the different
Yale men who fell, or died from wounds
in the late war, they will be individual
in character. :
a: a eae
The French Club.
The French Club, which was started
last year by members of the upper
classes, to. promote interest in, and
knowledge of, French literature and
language,. reopened January 31. The
Club this year is open to all four classes,
and while it appeals to the advanced
student in French there is also an excel-
lent opportunity for the beginner to
familiarize himself with the language,
through the lectures. These lectures
are given every two weeks on current
subjects of interest in France or on™
literary subjects, and are delivered by °
the best men that it is possible to get.
Professor Sumichrast of Harvard and
Professor’ Cohn of Columbia were
-among the lecturers last year. M.
d’Andiffot, who spoke on the “Dreyfus
Case,” will, on the thirteenth of this
month, give the first of this year’s
lectures speaking on the recent develop-
ments in this famous’ case. |
The Club’s room in the Berkeley
Hall basement is comfortably fitted
up, and is supplied with the current
issues of the best French periodicals, -
both comic and literary... It also con-
tains, as the nucleus of the library
which it hopes in time to obtain, some
fifty volumes of short stories and essays
by all the best French authors.
The great disadvantage under which
the Club labors is limited funds. The
dues are only three dollars a year, so
that no one may be deterred from
joining by monetary considerations.
This, of course, gives but a small in-
.come, while much is needed for the
‘purchase and binding of books and for
the getting of lecturers.
One donation
of fifty dollars has already been made,
and more are hoped for.
3 Ae
The Washington Dinner
A notable banquet of the Yale alumni
of the city of Washington was held on
saturday. night. Distinguished repre-
sentatives spoke for the three branches
of the government service. In spite of
careful preparations for a complete re-
port for this issue of the paper, the
copy failed to reach the WEEKLY in
time for use this week. The report will
appear in the next issue.
_D. Leavitt, 1900.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY. 8, 1899.
Price Ten Cents.
Looking for Debating Plan.
The first step towards the ‘strengthen-
ing of the Yale Union was taken at a
meeting of that body Friday night, Feb.
-3, at which a Committee was appointed
to produce a plan to increase the
Union’s effectiveness in all directions.
The names of that Committee are: J.
K. Clark, ’99; E. B. Boise, ’99; A. B.
Hall, ’99; H. A. Dow, 1900, and A.
Up to the present
time no plan has been hit upon which
can be said to solve all the difficulties of
the problem, and the Committee would
like to hear from any graduate or under-
graduate who is interested in the matter
and who believes he has a feasible plan
for the strengthening and centralizing
of the Union.
The resolutions upon which the debate
of the evening were based were:
“Whereas, The Yale Union has not
received the support which as the cen-
tral debating organization of the Uni-
versity it deserves; and
Whereas, This support seems now to
be diverted to the various class organi-
zations; be it
Resolved, That the Union, with the
consent of these organizations, institute
a series of inter-club debates to cen-
tralize and focus the debating interests
of the University,-and further be it
Resolved, That the membership of the
Union, to attain this end, should be
limited; and furthermore be it
Resolved, That the Union shall en-
deavor to find more convenient and ac-
cessible quarters; and furthermore be it
Resolved, That the meetings of the
Union should be held bi-weekly instead
of weekly, as at present.”
No decision was given upon the de-
bate which ensued, but at the close of
the meeting, all the above resolutions
were voted down as being. inadequate.
Many carefully prepared speeches
were heard from the. house, but no
satisfactory nlans were suggested.
———_+e4—___
Intercollegiate Relay Race.
‘Arrangements have been made by the
Athletic Association of the University
of Pennsylvania for an intercollegiate
relay race meeting, to be held on Satur-
day, April 29th. Yale will probably be
represented by a team, though it has
not yet been decided upon.
There will be three races, open to all
the colleges and universities of the
United States and Canada, to determine
the college championship of America.
Teams will be composed of four men.
A banner will be awarded the winning
team, and to each member a gold watch,
and to each member of the team that
finishes second a silver cup. The race
will be governed by the rules of the
Intercollegiate Athletic Association, ex-
cept that the usual entrance fee will not
be charged. In order that the colleges
may be arranged in groups that are
about equal in strength, the first group
will be composed of Yale, Harvard,
Princeton and Pennsylvania, if a team
from Yale competes.
——__+>____—-
University Whist.
The University Whist tournament
which was commenced before Christ-
mas has been finished. The matches -
played resulted as follows: In the semi-
final.round J. S. Cameron, ’99 and O.
'S. Bryant, ’99, defeated S. M. Wood,
1900, and A. VanderVeer, 1900; S. A.
Gilmore, ’99, and W. C. Lee, ’o9, de-
feated W. P. Haines, 1902 and M.
Moore, 1902. In the final round Gil-
more and Lee defeated Cameron and
Bryant.
PAI BETA KAPPA CHANGES,
Amendments Suggested of a Radical
and Important Character.
Constitutional amendments were sub-
mitted at a recent meeting of Phi Beta
Kappa, which suggest a very radical
change in the Society. The amend-
ments include the three following sec-
tions: Bee Bee
“The Society shall: elect as members
all men who have attained a philosophi-
cal oration stand in the work of Fresh-
man and Sophomore years: and in
addition, a number from among the first
fifty men in the Class sufficient to bring
the membership up to thirty.”
“All those not already members who,
at the end of Senior year, shall have
received a philosophical oration stand
on the work of Junior and Senior
years, shall then be elected members of
the Society.”
“The Society, by a three-fourths vote,
may elect as honorary members stch
persons of distinguished scholarship,
not undergraduates, as it may deem
worthy.” :
Since the new life which has been
shown by the Society recently, particu-
larly since the occupation of its new
quarters in White Hall, there has been
considerable agitation of the plan to
allow some opportunity of choice out-
side the records of the marking book,
for membership in Phi Beta Kappa.
All of the plans have, of course, re-
stricted candidates to men of excellent
stand in the Class. -
The most radical change proposed
was the plan to make all membership
elective, within the limits of a certain
number of the high stand men in the
Class. That is, thirty members were to
be chosen from the first fifty or sixty
men in the Class. These thirty might
or might not include those of the high-
est stand. The plan contemplated in
the amendments printed above is a com-
promise between this and the present.
system. It assures the opportunity for
the honorand benefits of Phi Beta Kappa
to those who attain the. philosoph-
ical stand. Anyone with that record
may be a member. But instead of leav-
‘ing this as the only means_of becoming
a member, it gives an opportunity for
election, outside of the list of philo-
sophicals, but within the first fifty
scholars of the Class. The object is
twofold. One is to recognize the-
scholarship of men of evidenced intel-
lectual. power, who have given so
much of their time to College work
of one kind or another, like edi-
torial work, or, it is to be presumed,
athletic work, as to allow their stand
to fall off a few hundredths. The other
is to make sure that the Society shall
always be of sufficient size to make it a
practically successful organization in its
literary and social character.
The question is the most important
one that Phi Beta Kappa has had to
consider, and a great deal of interest 1s
being taken in it, not only by mem-
bers of the Society, but by others, who
think they see in some such move as
this an opportunity to make Phi Beta
Kappa a stronger force in the life of the
University, and to make membership
therein, whether attained purely on
record of scholarship or by selection
from the best scholars of the Class, of
not only more honor but of more real
‘value.
——————__4> >
The first lecture of the Sheffield
Scientific School course will be given
on Tuesday evening, Feb. 14. The
complete list of lecturers and their sub-
jects appear in Saturday’s Bulletin.
