190
YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
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Yale Alumni Weekly, New Haven, Conn.
The office is at Room 6, White Hall.
ADVISORY BOARD.
H. C. Roprnson, 7538. %J.R. SHEFFIELD, ’87.
W. W.Sxippy,’65S. J. A. HARTWELL, ’89 S.
C. P. LInpsLEy, 75S. L.S. WELCH, ’89.
W. Camp, ’89. E. VAN INGEN, ’91 S.
W.G. DaaGett, ’80. P. Jay, °92.
——
EDITOR.
Lewis 8S. WELOH, ’89.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
WALTER CAMP, ’80.
ASSISTANT EDITOR.
E. J. THOMPSON, Sp.
NEWS EDITOR.
FRED. M. DAvIEs, ’99.
ASSISTANT.
PRESTON KuUMLER, 1900.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT ASSISTANTS.
O. M. CLARK, ’98. BURNETT GOODWIN, ’99 S.
Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. 0.
NEW HAVEN, CoNnN., FEB. 22, 1899.
PRESS AND PUBLIC IGNORED.
It is not pleasant to. say it, but we
feel bound to observe that the method
chosen by the Bi-Centennial Committee,
for the announcement of its plans, is
most surprising and discouraging. The
first general idea, which has gone be-
yond the Committee membership, of
the way in which Yale means to declare
herself to the world at her Bi-Centennial,
was told in an informal talk by a mem-
ber of the Committee to a small com-
pany of gentlemen at Boston; and
practically no arrangement was made
for its reproduction in the newspapers.
This was ignoring the best oppor-
tunity Yale has had for years to give
the general public an idea of what she
is really doing and aiming at. For long
months a company of her most dis-
tinguished professors and alumni have
been stdving the plans for this, the
greatest event in modern Yale history.
For all this time, the newspapers and
news agencies of the country have
patiently waited for some word from
the Committee. The invariable mes-
sage to them has been a request to Say
nothing until matters were ripe; that
Yale deprecated a premature announce-
ment; and the understanding certainly
has been that, in fulness of time, these
plans would be declared. So the news-
papers and the Associated Press and the
University press have all held ‘their
peace, and made no attempt to pry into
the future. “We are ready for you,”
was their attitude,” when you are ready
for us, and we will be olad to help you
in circulating the information concern-
ing this National event.”
Here in New Haven is the Connecti-
cut office of the Associated Press. Its
manager is a Yale man, exceedingly
loyal and firm, eagerly looking for all
the news of the most importance and
of the highest quality about Yale, par~
ticularly when he is so frequently called
upon to stand between the University
and the fiction and scandal writers. He
connects with papers the world over.
A number of correspondents of the
largest papers of the country are in
New Haven, ready to make extended
articles in regard to events of import-
ance to the University, which have the
quality of news. As far as the mem-
bers of the Yale familv were concerned,
this paper had offered to place in the
hands of every Yale man in every part
a Ado ATO MOINT
of the world, any fair statement of
Bicentennial plans, provided only, just
as in the case of all newspapers, that
material should be in the nature of
news. And with the simplest planning
all these interests could have worked
together most harmoniously, and hun-
dreds of thousands of the best people
would have been informed simultane-
ously of the best things of Yale.
And all these papers and agencies
were ignored. The Boston Alumni
Association is a splendid collection of
most loyal Yale men, who are willing
to work for the University. But that
does not alter the fact that hardly a
hundred men were in sound of Profes-
sor Woolsey’s voice. One Boston
paper caught a very fair report of Pro-
fessor Woolsey’s speech; but that is not
distributing news which has an interest
all over the country. That is anchor-~
ing news.
The Committee’s representative at
Boston was an ideal representative, and
his speech was a dignified and clear
statement of the high ideal of the Com-
mittee’s plans. And to Professor Wool-
sey this paper is indebted for helping
it to give that most interesting speech
in a complete and reliable form. But
it was seven days after that speech was
delivered before the nearest readers of
the WEEKLY could have it, and its con-
tents had lost all their news value by
that time.
Yale has spoken to and of the press in
terms of surprise, and sometimes of
contempt, for the space which papers
have given to the bubbles of College
life; and Yale has asked in a superior
way why something is not said about
what there is really adoing here. Yale
had a fine collection of news material,
about what the University is,really do-
ing and what she stands for, and the
University’s representatives put it de-
liberately out of reach of the press.
The very excellence of these plans, the
very character of the Committee, whose
personnel is unexceptionable. make the
situation all the more unfortunate. At
just the time when interest in Yale is
keener than ever before; when a splen-
did administration is just closing, and
the whole country is interested in who
shall take up the new work: when the
time is coming on for the great oppor-
tunity of showing what the spirit and
workings of this place are, it is sad
enough to contemplate such an_ inci-
dent at this. It smacks of the old ex-
clusive secret-meeting, purely personal,
conception of Yale’s status. It shows
either a lack of desire to acknowledge
Yale’s relations to the public and to
emphasize her position as a National
institution, of which her orators so
_ gloriously declaim at times: or it shows
a woful lack of knowledge of how to
treat with the peonle of this city, and of
this commonwealth, and of this nation.
In the light of Yale’s past treatment of
the press and the public, it is not sur-
prising that the general influence is that
it shows both these highly regrettable
traits. 7
—_—___++«-_____
DEBATE, AGAIN.
Another contribution to the debate
discussion is printed in this issue in the
form of an editorial from the Yale
News. We miss the usual directness
and confidence of News statements in
this editorial. It is what a famous de-
bater used to call a-““northeast by south-
west opinion.” It declares that there
are some things in favor of both plans
. so far proposed; many things against
both; that the present situation is safe
and practical, and that the present situa-
tion is unfortunate.
The position taken by this editorial
is free from some objections that per-
WHEK LY
tain to that taken by Mr. Wells, in
his letter in the last issue of the
WEEKLY. But we prefer the general
character of Mr. Wells’ letter, as_ it:
leads somewhere... It seems to us un-
fortunate, that its writer went into the
realm of discussion of a certain feature
of the society system, whose connec-
tion with the present theme we fail to
see,
down some very simple rules of action,
used the analogy of successful secret
societies. We did not thereby commit
ourselves to the general society system.
of Yale. We did not intend to discuss
it. We might just as well have taken
the illustration from any successful or-
ganization—a club, social or literary.
The only organization that sticceeds
is the organization where membership
means something. We do not believe
that this general principle needs any
exception, and we stand just where we
did before. If debating is going to suc-
ceed, it must succeed by building on
the instinct of organization as it is
shown in experience. We say again,
that we would rather have a debating
club of twenty, in which membership
indicated capacity for debate and a de-
termination to develop debating quali-
ties, than a debating club of a thou-
sand, in which membership meant
nothing. If it is undemocratic to be
practical we must be “undemocratic.”
We fail to see how the scheme for de-
bate is going to succeed by preliminary
and arbitrary limitations drawn from
theories of Yale’s social life, which
have nothing to do with the question of
the debating society.
Further, we have no patience with
this fear of politics getting into a thing.
It is time to be wholesome and con-
fident, and to doa thing for its own sake
and do it well. Why construct debate
on the principle of saving Yale’s social
life? One thing has nothing to do with
the other. We are inclined to appeal
to the Horace Greeley sense of Yale
men, and to suggest that if they desire
to debate it is well to debate. This
seems to us better than to theorize
about Yale’s social life. :
Se Bn
In the issue of the WEEKLY of Feb-
ruary 8, refernce was made to the origin
of the Pundit Club, and the statement
was made that it was founded by the
Class Eighty-Eight. This was
We apologize to them for an error
which attributed to other sources this
worthy act.
NEW YORK LIFE
INSURANCE COMPANY.
JOHN A. MCCALL, PRESIDENT.
s oeteenteetieeeieebaen eal
This Company has been in success-
ful operation since 1845, and has now
Over 300,000 policy-holders and over
$200,000,000 in assets. It offers the
most privileges and on the most favor-
able terms, of any Company. Under
its new system of classifying and com-
pensating agents, it offers to young
men continuous employment and a
life income. Its policies and agents’
contracts will interest all students.
Fs Fd
NEW YORK LIFE
*NSURANCE COMPANY, -
346 & 348 Broadway,
NEW YORK.
The WEEKLY, intending to lay-
one .
- point out of the way. The Class of
Eighty-Seven created the Pundit Club. —
Yale in the Civil War.
To the Editor of YALe ALUMNI WEEKLY:
In “Universities and their Sons,” just
published by R. Herndon & Co. of
- Boston, on page 438, I make the state-
ment that the number of Yale men in
the Union Army during the Civil War,
including non-graduates, was over 800
(the number given in the Yale Book,
Vol. II, page 256 is 836), and then add
in quotations the remark with regard
to Yale that “she gave more men to
the war on the side of the Government
than any other college in the land.”
The writer quoted is shown by Mr.
Thayer’s statement on page 100 to have
been mistaken. The total which Mr.
Thayer gives for Harvard University
graduates is 1,232, and the number of
men to be credited to Harvard would
be larger still, “if it were possible to
know exactly the number of non-
graduates who likewise enlisted.’”’ Even
if the comparison be confined to the
undergraduate “colleges,” excluding the
professional schools, which were much
larger at Harvard than at Yale, the
advantage would still doubtless be on
the side of Harvard. The figures given
are: Yale 687, Harvard 626; Hut it is
fair to assume that if Mr. Thayer could
have included the non-graduates, the
number for Harvard would have ex-
ceeded that for Yale.
C, H. Smita.
Feb. 20, 1899.
——+o__—_
President Eliot says that at least 82
per cent. of all Harvard College stu-
dents and young graduates are physi-
cally fit for the service of the country
in time of war, just as they are fit for
all sorts of strenuous work in business
and the professions in time of peace.
Yale Law School.
For circulars and other information apply to
Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND,
Lean.
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