Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-26
AS ONE WOMAN SEES 1T
University Professors as Business Ad.
mlnistrators-Wide interests and
One Enthusiasm Keynote
to Success
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE


perspective.
And they loved their work. and neither
| the danger nor the bardships involved have
| dimmed the enthusiasm and interest it had
| for them.
If their students have changed and be =
| come restless and cxacting. or restless and
| indifferent. the masters themselves have
| changed still more. They are not ready to
| settle down into their old ruts. Some Of
| them. like BakCwrll of Yale have taken
| on political activities with their class rou =
| tine: some, like Trowbrdgc. of Princeton.
| have extended their war leave and acted in
| Washington and in France as commission
| ers or representatives of national and inter
national committees: others, like Slaughter.
| of the University of Wisconsin, after tri-
umphant Red Cross work in Venice, have
| come home to write as well as teach or
like Tait Mackenzie. of the University Of
pennsylvania. have turned artists. | doubt
| ie before his Palestine experience, with the
English Army of Occupation Prof Edward
Reed. the philologist. would have felt him
self impcllcd to preach n lay sermon TO a
summer congregation on Sunday, but he
did it tho other day in my hearing with a
terNor and finish that marked him as some
thing more even than great teacher Of
English.
THE truth is these men, who have been
L trained to teach in a certain atmosphere
Of prepared listeners these autocrats Of the
placed in positions where money and power
over men to a degree undreamed of BY even
the high captains of finance dozen years
ago, far from losing the poise of their for
mer circumscribed existence of habit plus
theory, actually kept their balance. turned
their cultivated power of scientific obsCrva-
tion to account and profted hy tho OK
pori"nc" Of knowing how to deal with in
experienced unwilling minds. They went
to it and made good as administrators and
aS oil Go hal hoo,
pairing them for just that job.
They found chaos and want and sort Of
stampcdcd hPlpleSsness they were met by
an unorganized-Or worse still disorgan.
izcd - system of transportation. break
down of communications and lot OF red
tape.
Everywhere they were told tho thing could
not be done the plan was good but impossi-
bic; tho food, though desperately needed
was not to be procured. Patiently they got
leave to try increasingly they pressed tho
wOrkablcness of the venture: clcvCrly and
audaciOusly they took a chance ahcre and
advantage of n slip there. to ignore or to
cut the knot Of rcd tape. With the most
imaginative pity they arranged their re-
sources so that the morale of hope should
be awakened by the very Wilderness of the
distribution. Humorously but with cour-
tcsy born of kindness they adapted the Amer
lcan no sooner said than done" methods
to the. grave procrastnation of the local
th"y talked so apprcciatvely in France and
in Italy of what had been done in a military
way by the allied armes-that for {. long
TIN" tho expert knowledge that they them
selves possessed was not guessed This was
notably true with the army men, And
during the entire experience they listened
and observed and made unobtrusivc reports
for headquarters, most of which will never
have been read, let alone used, with the
abrupt cessation of hostiitics
nd thny ko,l, G,,l Al,
over at home with such a vengeance that
their war talk and experiences were more
like old wives tales than news. So, bottled
up, they have gone back to their class
rooms and laboratories and study tables
with tremendous accumulation of energy
and interest to work off, if not on their
unwilling classes. then on something else.
Having tasted of the fruit Of energetic
practice. they are like the Lady, of ShaIott:
- 4 am half sick of shadows.
Said the Lady Of Shalott"
T SAT next to n Princeton professor the
other day at a luncheon; he had been
telling me about getting tho supplies for his
iaisOn unit up to the front before Chateau
Thierry.
Il cannot sit down and thcorize anv
longer with the least Interest,"" said he.
And who could blame him.
But there is this 10 be said: Since our
university men have proved themselves TO
be masters in action as we'll as masters in
theory. they should also prove far more
attractive to their students than ever before.
II they could turn their thcorctic learning
10 account for humanity and for patriotism
they ought surely to be able to turn their
practical experience to account in their
contact with the youth Of the land
1t is the being able to do things ONT Of
character that is really attractive to youth,
anyway.
The Rev. Wilton Morlc- Smith has
had for years a crowded church in New
York city. and he breaches remarkably we'll
bur his chief attraction for Young mon is
that ms pitcher on his university team he
invented the curved pitch in bnscbaIl
One of the champion hurdlrrS Of tho ana
teur track Is about 10 become n clergyman,
and commenting upon II with cheerful rcsig.
nation, his fnthPr. who wished another
career for him, remarked good naturCdIy: oiTS;
"Th"re is no profession whore Georges
hurdling will gain so many souls as the
ministry 80
But If the war shook mon UP 50 tIot thev
60 back reluctantly to their old places on
the faculty, 1t shook others quite ont of
their professional chairs into business or
engineering or politics. II gave them n
chance without looking silly to scrap their
mistaken voCations md without apologizing
M confrssing failure begin at something
Nlte different.
The necessity for choosing ones lifo oc.
cupation so early in life, and then the or
pens" and time Of training for it. and then
the Wir" pulling required to BE- established in
it sometimes turns it into BAH and chain
that fcttcrs a man to life for which~ho is
fundamentally unsuited. II is interesting
now and then, however, TO meet a man wh9
has had the nerve TO take up n score of
| changes Of occupation and who yet has kent
| always one goal as his final destination
met one such lately In John Cunlif. the
| director of the School Of Journalism, who
| has succeeded TalCott Williams
1t was only the most cursory meeting, but
| ! was 50 impressed by his compact fitness
! for the job that ] wondered what had been
! his steps toward it. | found later thai bc
had been a reporter in England as an OK
| ceedingly young man, then a student
Cmakng languages his speciality then pro,
feSsOr Of English at McGill University in
Canada, then assistant director Of the newly
organized School of Journalism Of the
Pulitzer Foundation in New York City-,its
practical business manager, | take it--and
| then, on the retirement of the director. Mr..
| Williams successor and a dominant foCtor