Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-16
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
iBY. PAUL y. COLLINS.

It is indeed an alert stu tent of life
who can keep pace with THE develop
ments affecting sociology or human re-
lations. Conditions Of vest erday may
not at all apply to results CT etoday, pe-
cause of new influences.
Yale University announcCa tnat a
fund of $500, 900 has becomcl available
through the benefactions Of the Rocke-
Teller Foundation and other F h'ckefeller
interests, with which to endc - a new
department of research-the kStudy OF
the behavior of man. 1t will called
Institute Of Human Relations ana Is
the first undertaking in that lne.
Now we may learn why we gre such
universal blunderers,
+ -
What a pity IL is that this new
tangled college course cannot ave as
Its dean the late Alexander Po VINO
r,rote Ire text hook His first less In en-
hodied much wisdom, in that 1t iktugfit
Know then myself, presume Y; God
to scan: =,
The proper study of mankind is oman"
Yet that was not original wit b, the
English poet, of two centuries asp, 1or
he stole IL from Pierre Charron, siwho,
49, centurMe earlier ayerred.<s La
vraie science. ct Ia vraie etucE de
rhomme, c'est l'homme," which tE al
most literally the same phrase as Ytnat
of Pope. True science and the True
study Of man, Is man" The queer ,ait
of it Is that it did not require m ia. .s
million dollar endowment TO estat Ism
that wisdom.
Likewise, Pope displayed shire I'D
discretion in the relations OF men. NJ
he wrote fiction truer than truth. WI n
he made character IN The Wne PI
Bath" declare his rule In his mum ~
relations" confessing his own shrew'k'
ness:
"Sir, have lived a courtier all my
And studied men. their manners andl
And have observed this useful maxim
To let my betters always have their
WILL"
Why take a college course, spending
the income from the Rockefeller NIL
lions, when the same end may be
reached in q course Of reading OF Pope?
Would 1t not have been more bene-
fetal to mankind for Mr.. Rockefeller 70
have simply lowered the price OF gaSo-
line and let human relations" speed
on? Or Is 1t the aim Of Mr.. Rockefeller
to diagnose why the speedster Is never
content to show ordinary courtesy TO
the carful of human relations" ahead
of him. without honking and rushing
by, grazing the near tenders or banging
the hind bumper In mad haste?
Aye, there's the rub!
Aoxk.a tho pav College 0f Human Re-
lations will succeed In analyzing speed
mad human nature attached to the
steering wheel of a fiivver, with no
traffic cop in sight. 1t would be worth
all the millions It Is costing for nobody
vet has explained the total wreck OF
human courtesy caused by one attack OF
fiivveritis. And now 1t Is epidemic, like
the "flu"-spelled in such case flew
President Angell-how fitting the
name!-expresses an optimistic hope |
that the new science may reincarnate !
the "old family DOCTOR" to replace the |
modern specialist in medical practice.
for 1t Is to develop composite OF all |
specialists-the soulless scientists who |
know only one thing each, and have /
never discovered, with Pope and the |
"old family DOCTOR" that 1.-The proper |
study of mankind Is man." with all his
habits, prejudices and inheritances OF |
his ancestors and influences OF his en- |
vironment, which the unlearned family
doctor. adviser and nurse, knew so init
mately.
So the learned President of Yale "lets
the cat out of the bag" and sums up
all the modern research by inttmating
that the old family doctor had a great
advantage over the modern specialist IN
his psychology and psychiatry, even
though he could not have given their
technical names, as the professors of the
Human Relations College are going
to do.
Somebody in Boston was laughed at,
years ago, for alleging the power of
mind over matter" and the error" of
human disease. Maybe along with the
''old family doctor" now will come back
Bostonian psycfology. apnihilating pain
and death. not through "healers." but
through long Latin names for aches and
idioSyncrasies classified ct Hartford.
There are other modern fnffuences
which. since the World War, have had
far more 70 do with human relations"
than Is usually recognized. Even within
thu last WAAk Ohnaryar kAAR and