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YALE ALUMNI
WEEKLY
eT
YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
SUBSCRIPTION, - $3.00 PER YEAR,
Foreign Postage, go cents per year.
PAYABLE IN ADVANCE,
Single copies, ten cents each. For rates for papers in
quantity, address the office. All orders for papers should
be paid for in advance
Checks, drafes and orders should be made payable to
the Yale Alumni Weekly.
All correspondence should be addressed,—
Yale Alumni Weekly, New Haven, Conn.
The office is at Room 6, White Hall.
ADVISORY BOARD.
WILLIAM W. SKIDDY, ’65S.,..... -ese. New York,
© Purny LINOSLEY, '45 S., cwpesrcces New Haven.
WALTER CAMP, °80,.......- Fades east New Haven.
WILLIAM G. DAGGETT, °80,....0..00. New Haven.
JAMES R. SHEFFIELD, °87,........... New York.
JouNn A. HARTWELL, ’89S.,.......- .»New York,
Baie SW SELCH, 866 Silda. ckdece New Haven.
EDWARD VAN INGEN, ’91 S.,....cecees New York,
PLERRE JAY, O2ise css cvsecs ‘efuiless« - New York.
EDITOR.
Lewis S. WELCH, ’89.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
WALTER CAmp, ’80,
ASSISTANT EDITOR.
E. J. THOMPSON, Sp.
NEWS EDITOR.
PRESTON KUMLER, 1900
——_—_—_—
ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGER.
BURNETT GOODWIN, ’99 S.
Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. O.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., APRIL 4, 1900.
A BUSINESS PROPOSITION OF IN-
TEREST TO YALE BELIEVERS
IN AN ALUMNI WEEKLY.
If this paper allows only the right kind
of people to appear in its advertising
columns, its readers, if they want to see
it grows to its largest and best Yale
usefulness, will seek the first and every
opportunity to do business with these
advertisers and will personally and by
letter commend them for appearing in its
columns. YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY ad-
vertising is good on general principles.
Yale men can, if they. will, demonstrate
to the most unwilling, that it is the best
advertising to be had in the country.
ee
THE DEBATE.
The result of the debate on Saturday
was not what Yale wanted and was not
what it should be. The same finish and
ease in action, and other qualities that
come with good platform training,
might have won the day for Yale; and
this does not underrate the very excel-
lent work done by the Harvard men,
both in their presentation of argument
and in their handling of themselves.
The debate simply illustrates the fact,
which does not need illustration, that
Yale ’s platform training is conspicu-
ous for its absence.
It is therefore an especial tribute to
the good work which their coach, Mr.
Nathan A. Smyth, put upon the de-
baters, that they did so well. They
were splendidly equipped with fact and
argument, and when it came down to
the hard give and take fight of rebuttal,
were very formidable. Mr. Smyth
ought to be exceedingly encouraged over
his first experience in handling a debat-
ing team. The University is certainly
very grateful to him.
ty, Lie
ia PD ces
The organization of the alumni of the
Divinity School is, of course, a step in
the right direction, and will help to bring
these alumni into the close relations to
the University which they ought to
occupy, and which they do not now
occupy. As the- University gets to-
gether, the students of the Divinity
School will the more feel themselves to
be parts of. Yale, and they will all the
more appreciate their connection with
the place through such an organization
@
as that which holds the Academic and
other students.
The President told the Divinity
alumni, as is recorded elsewhere, that
there has never been such a call or op-
portunity for the best work in the pul-
pit as there is to-day. Its power should
be made greater now than it ever had
been. This is very helpful and cheerful,
and seems to us quite rational. There
is a lot of nonsense printed about the
usurpation of the old power of the pul-
pit by the press and other agencies. As
long as ministers are leaders, people
will listen and follow. If there has been
a decline in the influence of the pulpit,
and there is something more to explain
it than the Sunday newspaper or any
indifference of the people to the inter-
ests of religion.
, %
v
The Williams Weekly announces that
the Night Shirt Parade, which is an
event, in that institution of March (!!),
is losing its grip on the community. A
vulgar pun or two on a popular germ
affliction might be in order by way of
comment. It is hard to tell from the
descriptions how literal the costumes are.
The spectacle can not be as true to its
name as the corresponding function at
Yale in June. They must wear some-
thing. It is probably an inverted 8.09-
. chapel costume. This parade at Wil-
liams seems to be a fixed feast, and
formal.
works and things and it is expensive.
It is probably too formal. Yale’s simi-
lar event is quite spontaneous. It occurs
at any time when it is warm and exam-
inations are over, and a Guam-like peace
has settled over the Campus for a few
minutes. It might not happen at all
some years. But it would never be
planned for. That would kill it.
Fite, atte Gl
Within the last ten days Harvard has
won the general fencing tournament,
Harvard has won the whist contest with
Yale, Harvard has won the great annual
debate with Yale. This is a condition
which is becoming quite too general in
late years to suit the Yale mind. The
Class of Nineteen Hundred made a good
start in the way of disturbing it last
Fall and has an opportunity to continue
that good work in the next three months.
All power to them!
—__—__+e—_____
An editorial paragraph in last week’s
issue commended the Treasury De-
partment for the decision to establish a
Yale Campus Post Office. The refer-
ence was, of course, to the Treasury
Department of Yale, which had been
active in bringing the change about.
—_——_—_++o—___—_
CURRENT LITERATURE.
A President Speaks Out.
The Atlantic Monthly, which is print-
ing some excellent educational papers
these days, has a very frank article called
~“The Perplexities of a College Presi-
dent,” written by “One of the Guild.”
It is not very strange that it is signed
in that way, although one might think
his fellows could guess who he was; for
the article does not seem framed with
any idea of concealing his individuality.
But, certainly, if he signed it, his own
perplexities would be at once increased
to such an extent that he would _ prob-
ably be relieved of all of them for the
time being.
The general sentiment of the paper is,
that the average board of trustees, or
corporation, of a college or university,
does not show the most elementary
There are brass bands and fire-
common sense in administrative prob-
lems. It is not ordinarily, according to
this writer, given to the executive to
manage the university. He is controlled,
interfered with, repressed and handi-
capped, by all the particular traditions
of administration that have grown up
in that particular college or university;
by denominational prejudices; by worn
out or lazy or highly prejudiced men,
or those combining all these character-
istics, who believe that residence in the
university constitutes authority; by trus-
tees, who simply want to avoid trouble,
or by those who wish to conserve cer-
tain preconceived notions about running
a university, when they have never had
any opportunity to develop any rational
ideas on the subject.’
Trustees never think, says the writer,
of giving to the college president, on
whom they have placed the almost in-
comparable responsibility of leadership,
power that is in any way adequate to that
responsibility. The universal experience
of the world, in all matters outside of
those educational, is that that power
must go with leadership, if the leader-
ship is to arrive anywhere. But prac-
tices are allowed in the conduct of the
enormously important business of de-
veloping a great American university
and all that means in the constitu-
tion of American ideals and _ the
development of American character and
the advancement of knowledge—prac-
tices are allowed, says this critic, by the
board of last appeal, which would ruin
any business in six months or wreck
a government in less time. The college
president, according to this college
president, is not generally allowed to
know how the departments are being
run; it would be an insult for him to
inquire. His hands are tied when it
comes to the re-arrangement of the cur-
riculum, in which, in its highest form,
must be expressed his ideas of what the
education of his college or university |
should be. Some faculty committee is
given the work which belongs to the ex-
ecutive, and he is over-ridden; and so a
gross injustice is done to hundreds of
young men; wrong methods of teaching
are perpetuated, and unfortunate rela-
tions are established between instructors
and students. And the president can’t
stop it.
This writer, when he takes up, early
in his article, the case of the men elected
to the presidency of a college or uni-
versity, excepts “half a dozen that come
immediately to mind as already reason-
ably well organized and well equipped,
modern, up-to-date.” But a great many
things which he says he evidently means
to apply to pretty nearly every high
institution of learning. His conclusion
is as follows.
“A distinguished member of the
United States Senate once declared, ‘I
love my Alma Mater for all that she has
enabled me to be and to do in spite of
her !’—a seeming paradox that will be
readily understood by every thoughtful
graduate who has at last found his true
place in the world’s economy. ‘The
spirit of this age accepts the desirability
and the necessity of sound and sane
training of a very high order, if we are
to be saved from the friction and irrita-
tion and irretrievable loss that always
follow in the train of ignorance and its
consequent weakness. Public and pri-
vate treasure is poured out most freely to
secure this more satisfactory preparation
for a larger life. But the wear and tear
and waste and delay must continue al-
most unbearable, unless the business of
education is regarded in a business light,
is cared for by business methods, and
is made subject to that simple but all
efficient law of a proper division of
labor and of intelligent and efficient or-
ganization,—a division of labor which
brings the men who are students of the
classics, of the sciences, of the litera-
tures, of philosophy, of history, under
the wise direction and immediate control
of the man who is necessarily and most
desirably a student of humanity; with a
responsibility which is coincident with
the work in hand, and: with an authority
entirely commensurate with this re-
sponsibility. Whatever of executive
difficulties and perplexities will then re-
main, they will not be the peculiar diffi-
culties and perplexities of to-day.”
Fiction in the Lit.—A Warning.
In the review of the Yale Lz. for
March in the Yale News, Dr. Reed, of
the English Faculty, warns the Lit.
against indulging its appetite for fiction
to the exclusion of the critical essay.
The warning is in order. Coming from
such a source, it ought to be heeded by
[Continued on page 267.]
THE QUESTION OF VALUE.
When a man selects an article of
wearing apparel from a number costing
two or more prices and of different
qualities, he selects the best; and in this
his judgment is good because he takes
a long look ahead and the question of
future value and durability is foremost
in his mind.
If this simple principle should be fol-
lowed out when many of our business
men seek to invest their money, there
would be certain prosperity and few if
any disappointments. Present value
and future durability are the things to
be first considered in nearly every busi-
ness transaction, whether the articles
purchased are to be worn or kept in a
safe. :
Many men invest their incomes in
mines, some in lumber lands, some in
orange groves, some purchase stock in
industrial enterprises or become silent
partners in business firms, and some in-
vest in ships that battle with the ele-
ments at sea, while others have faith in
promising corner lots; but all make their
ventures with an abundance of hope.
Some of these are successful, but fail-
ures oft outnumber successes and the
words of the sacred proverb—“hope de-
ferred maketh the heart sick,” are again
proved true.
A financial institution of the magni-
tude of The Mutual Life Insurance
Company of New York, that has been
able to withstand the pressure of many
financial crises and panics; a company
that has been “tried in the fire,” pro-
vides the best means for the safe invest-
ment of one’s money. Such a choice
will, in the long run, far excel the most
promising speculative business enter-
prise. The mine may fail to yield its
paying ores; the crop may prove short
and disastrous; the corner lot may eat
itself up in interest and taxes; or the
sea may swallow up the vessel; but the
policy will endure and produce value
for the investor. See to it that you be-
come a member of this great institution.
Yate Law SCHOOL,
For circulars and other information
apply to
Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND,
Dean.
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policy-holder.
Some interesting literature, includ-
ing the forty-eighth annual statement,
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HENRY M. PHILLIPS, Secretary,
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
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In doing business with the YALE
ALUMNI WEEKLY advertisers, please
mention this paper.
The Magdalena River Colonization Company,
which owns 300,000 acres on the Magdalena River,
in the United States of Colombia, has determined
to subdivide the same into 20, 40, 50 and 100-acre
farms, and sell the same at $5 per acre, payable $1
per acre cash, and $1 per acre in 1, 2, 3 and 4 years,
without interest. The Climate, soil and produc-
tions are the same as Southern California, to which
is added all tropical fruits, such as Oranges, Lemons,
Limes, Pine Apples, Grape Fruit, Grapes, Pears,
Cocoa, Rubber trees, Ginsing root, Tobacco, etc.
There will be some of the best farmers from Switz-
erland, France, Germany, Italy, England, Canada,
and from many of our United States. Some New
England farmers already located. The colony has
a frontage of 25 miles on the Magdalena Rivet,
with steamers running from there to Cartagena and
Bananquilla several times a week. We expect t0
have at least five hundred settlers located in one
year. For further information address,
WM. H. MARTIN, Land Commissioner,
1o14 Empire Building, NEw York.
