Evening star., 1930-11-30
The Story the Week Has Told

eraI opinion in the world at large that
the weird story told by Ramsin and the
others evolved itself under the prelim-
mary Ogpu examination. Among those
mentioned as arch-conspirators are
Poincaire, BRAND, "Col. Lawrence"
presumably Lawrence Of Arabia, alias
"AircraftSman Shaw" is meant) and
Lord Churchill presumably Winston
Churchill Is intended. France, it
seems, was to send military instructors
and airplanes to aid Poland and Ru-
mania In an attack on Russia. SuppoS-
ing the story a tissue of pure men
dacity, 1t seems crude enough, but one
must Judge the artistry by the cor
respondence Of effects to aims. II
aimed at arousing popular passion by
way Of diverting popular attention from
economic maleaSe, it would seem to be
an artistic masterpiece.
| y X
INDIA-There Is poignancy and
significance in the campaign Of speech
making now being made in this coun-
try by Rabindranath Tagore, the In
dian poet, novelist, playwright, teacher
and seer, master of q beautiful style In
English as well as Bengali. Tagore Is,
of course, a magnificent representative
of Indian personality and culture. He
Is a man of authentic genius, the ablest
of family marked by genius. OF hv-
| ing paladins of world harmony and
shining. I said "poignancy," for he Is
old, broken in health, scarce able to
stand or speak at all, and no doubt
stirred to the depths by consideration
of the present supreme crisis OF Indian
destiny. I cannot but think that Of all
current experiments in education that
Of Tagores school at Santiniketan
("the home of peace'O must be the
most interesting. Tagore, 1t should be
reconstruction of Indian society. He Is
very keenly aware of our faults, but no
| less aware of the virtues of our civili-
zation and of how India might profit
by them.
UNITED STATES.-The keel of one
of the two 4O000-ton liners which are
to be built for the United States Lines
under its contract with the Federal
Government will be LAID on December
at the yard of the New York Ship
building Co. at Camden, N. j. The
keel of the sister ship will be laid
within a few months. The ships will
ply between New York and England.
They are planned to maintain speed
of about % knots. Each will carry
about 1900 paSSengers-600 first class,
400 tourist and 230 third class. They
are to be followed by two still larger
ships. I hear that these superliners
are to be of $4,000 tons and of speed
superior to that of the Bremen.
A book has just appeared which
should have q mighty reSound and
which may prof1tably be read by all
Americans. It Is entitled universities
American, English, German" and Is
published by the oxford University
Press, its author being DR.. Abraham
Flexner, formerly director of the Cen
eral Educational Board and now head
of the new Institute for Advanced
Study. DR.. Flexner lambastes terribly
certain tendencies in our universities.
and more tumultuous, have cheapened,
vulgarized and mechanical themselves.
The sort of easy rubbish which may be
counted toward an ABB. degree, or the
so-called combined degree, passes the
limit of credibility." The doctor Is
especially severe on Harvard'S Graduate
School Of Business, on Columbia's
School of Journalism, on the fantastic
variety of subjects courses in which may
be counted for degrees at Chicago, Co
lumbta, etc., etc. He does not consider
courses in advertising layoutS," "prac-
tical poultry raising" "euthenics" and
the like as properly contributing to q
bachelors degree. If the courses not
properly making for degree were elm
mated, the problem of excessive enroll
ment would cease to exist. The ancient
English universities, whatever their de-
fectS, "are as seats of higher learning
incomparably superior to anything that
has been created in America"
Excellent. It is time for US to de-
(Cqatinued on Fourth Page.)