The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-23
Ynina xs. Yale.

IL IS evidently true that WHeIe tHeie | is so much smoke there must be some | fire" However people may differ as to the wisdom of Miss Willard's petition
 or the motive for the Voices expose, | the question as to the fact of the | charges is of chief interest. Denials, bluff, condoning offsets by faculty,
 prominent alumni, ministers or the
 press do not disprove the statements
 about the intemperance and immorah-
 ties of Yale students To assert that l those charges are "unwarranted, mall l cious, without foundation, neither more nor less than tissues of falsehoods," IS
 not the same as proving them false. II l there be an statement or asSump- | ton concerning the students or facul- | ty there may be sufficient basis ot fact | to encourage search for that about | the matter which deserves and oe-
 mands attention.
 | The question raised that will not De | downed so easily is not whether there | Is more religion at Yale now than ever,
 but whether there is more devlltry;
 not whether more religious activity by
 larger proportion of the students, but
 whether at the same time there Is alto- gether too much of demoralizing na-
 ture among the rest; not is there more
 or less intemperance, lawlessness ana
 licentiousness now as compared with | the past but is there much more or | that sort than ought to be expected in I |. II. ~,t,, ,atn And are the corporation and faculty 1 doing all that ought reasonably 10 pc | expected of them towards securing the high moral atmosphere that should pervade the university life of the stu dents as whole? The vital question is not so much about the "Yale spirit,
 so effusively paraded at club banquets
 and alumni gatherings, as concerning
 the real tone of Yale conduct and influ-
 ence at New Haven and elsewhere. The president and professors and many
 of the alumni may "Whoop'er up over
 fine buildings, athletics, etc., but there
 is a large part of the alumni, not
 ali in their dotage, that are seriously thinking of the effects of various stu !, dent habits and demonstrations, so
 much encouraged by graduates, on the
 future character of the old and honored
 institution.
 As a loyal Yalensian I was disturbed !, at hearing of the Voices charges, and
 began to prepare some corrections, but
 on receiving copy and carefully con- sidering it's presentation, with various ! replies, am led first to ask space in
 your paper for some items that the
 public would do well to think of.
 The Register says Miss Willard
 "does not know what she is talking
 about" Perhaps not, yet I have req
 son to think the "womanly credulity' which that editor cheaply character
 ized was based on facts that her sat- !. irizer desired to ignore.
 Perhaps Judge Rowland, speaking for his part of the corporation and his side of the alumni, may be in the fix | charged upon the woman when he
 said: There are only four places about
 Yale where students go, and no drunker
 orgies or disgraceful scenes are allowed l in them" Of the sixty-six places spec flied on the Voices diagram my i'm
 pression is that more than thirty oi
 those on the farther sides are not pat
 ronized by students, but as shown 1T 7 its issue of February 3, its own staff , reporters statements are confirmed by New Haven papers of November g and add three to the Judges list, while . many familiar with the city know tha , the number of places where student: 7 have been accustomed to earouse a.
 well as drink, within one block les' than the Voice limit, is many time' : ! four. Various disgraceful fiascos O the students previously have been pub | lished by New Haven and New Yorl
 and other papers for years past a facts, especially after athletic victories r too freely and too often for anybody t g get on their ear over statements nov , which can easily be proved true or Il
 belous.
 The honored President of Yale mus
 have been msquoted as saying, "Thi - attack on the university is withou foundation" if it was meant to cove . all that is alleged by the Voice, fo l some of the items mentioned therei e are not only notorious, but abundantl S confirmed heretofore.
 s The professors may declare that eth
 faculty feel competent to take care c
 the moral as we'll as other welfare 0
 any young man sent to Yale" but tn
 question at once arises Are they doin
 1t effectively or sufficiently? Tn IS Judge may assert for the corporatio ,- that "the university authorities kno7 ,e how to manage their own affairs, an
 will resent any advice" but does Yal e belong wholly to the corporation, or ar h they fulfilling the trust reposed by " very important constituency in respeo [, to the point at issue? They may re
 sent and refuse counsel from thei y non-agreeing brethren of the alumn 10 but they cannot put old Yale beyon ,e the effects of public criticism if the Ia ignore conditions that are proverbis
 and that rightly demand improvement le Prominent alumni club speakers ma E. think the "Yale spirit" conduces ,s every way to morality now more tha < ever, but judgments differ according { " standpoints, and to many others th b, spirit of true advance in some respect t. does not seem sufficiently pronounce ,e or forceful to counteract in due pro
 portion the tendency towards the hurt , full and debasing.
 50 What does the professor mean b le "helpful surroundings" say temper re ancewise for the weaker portion' q, what positive ways do even the facult