The Washington herald., 1920-02-23
new ENGLAND
ECONOMICS Big
COLLEGE ISSUE
Both Yale. and Harvard
Commencing to Have
Broader Views.
(By . star Cerre.pe.dent.,

OF the department OF economics. OF
Yale, Is out In the world winning
for himself and the university
credit for interest in profoundly
important human problem. T. 8.
Adams, of the same department. in
q much quieter way during the war.
and even now, has advised the gov
ernment splendidly on all the tech
nique Of direct tax collection. WILL
lam Lyon Phelps. teacher of litera-
ture and a middleman between au-
thors and audiences, lets the public
know that Yale Is a modernist to a
moderate degree when IL comes to
literary evolution. Max Farrand. OF
the department of history. is writ
ing and teaching national history.
with due emphasis on the economic
Interpretation thereof. But when
you have mentioned these men you
have come near naming all the icon
oclasts.
Harvard Livelier.
At Harvard the situation Is much
livelier. In the first place the pro-
ErAssives have at last got a repre-
sentative on the Corporation who
dares think for himself and not as
the ruling caste want him to. John
r. Moors IS a fnancier with vesti-
gial remains Of humanism still
lclinging TO him He dares to ad-
mire President Wilson. and gives
his reasons in documents and PAM
phlets which are not easy to contro-
vert-with arguments. In the sec
ond place. much as President Lowell
dislikes Radicallsm. he will not see
injustice done TO radicals on the fac
uity or among the students. Hence
t. - L -.
to rid the university OF Mr.. Laski,
by lampooning him with carfcature
and by threatening to withhold gifts
to the university IL it were not
dropped from the teaching stan.
President Lowell has said that IL
I-aski has to go because he thinks
and speaks freely, then he. Lowell.
also will go.
Harvard's relative superiority
over Yale in this detail of univer-
sity adjustment to burning issues is'
because Boston Is the center of a
Harvard liberal club that does not
hesitate to challenge the universi-
tvs policy, and discusses the very
most current political and social
themes. 1t recently marshaIled at
one OF its dinners. when the issue OF
free speech was discussed. persons
no less eminent than Judge Ander-
son, of the Federal Circuit Court;
Rev. Samuel Crothers. eminent as an
essayist and divine, and ]. Randolph
Collidge. an architect of more than
local renown.
LAW stan Views.
Nor is the Harvard situation made
a less whit interesting because its
aolest faculty and most popular
department at the present time, that
of the law. has a number of men on
Its teaching force who are very pro-
gressive. and who are far from ie-
galistic and traditional in their at.
titude toward solution of social
problems. Roscoe Pound. Franklin
-ankfurter, Zachariah Chafee and
men Of that type have been or are
leavening the graduates of the
school with their evolutionary, YeaI-
istic. vital views.
No one can rightly assay the mind
of New England at the present time
who does not reckon with the 80
rum" movement. 1t has its center
of administration and largest infiu-
ence in Boston, but they are found
scattered In many cities and towns
throughout eastern New England.
and are being carried on under a
great variety of auspices. Christians
have theirs, Jews theirs, and secu-
larists theirs. Sometimes they meet
In churches and synagogues. some
times in Y. NJ. c. A halls. and some
times in theaters. Their method
usually is one based on exposition
OF a theme by speaker. and then
his submission of himself or herself
to rapid-fre query or to challenge
OF his statement OF facts or argu-
ments.t
Leaders Suspicious.
Managed usually by representa-
tives of the older New England race
stocks most of the attendants are
of the newer immigrants, or are
persons who. fer a variety of rea-
sons, have become alienated from
the church and will not darken
church doors or who are suspicious
OF the usual leaders of community
opinion. The forum" has succeed
ed in attradDng hearers of a new
type into the circle of influence OF
radical. progressive, and, in some
cases. conservative speakers. Dur
Ing the war the managers of these
organizations and their speakers
have had to soft pedal in order to
escape the charge of disloyalty.
They still are on the black list in
some communities: but of their ac-
tiyity in discussing postwar prob
lens and helping to shape the re-
suits OF coming political campaigns
there can be no doubt.
Like the old New England "ly-
ceumv in some respects. these new
groupings of persons eager for light
and rabid for action, have a quality
of their own that meets the coptar,
porary need. They owe their origin
and federated organization more to
George W. Coleman, of Boston. than
to any other man: and he got his
arrest OF thought and CALI TO
the work by seeing what was being
done for the masses by the Sunday
night meetings in Cooper Union, |
New York City.
Lecture TO women's Clubs.
New England also gets much of
such social leaven as II has from the !
small army of lecturers before the |
women's clubs. which in number. |
financial resources and avidity for
light on issues of the hour, have got
the mems organizations beaten out
OF sight. Here in this new army Of
voters seeds of revolt against past
social, legal and commercial stand
ards are being sown by some lectur-
ers who do their propaganda job as
deftly and artistically as any group
in the country. Grade for grade.
class for class-if you want to use
the un-American term-the New
England woman is far more radical
than her father, husband or brother;
and she will show them a few
things" which she gets to voting.