Evening star., 1937-11-05
.DR.WOOLLEY TALKS.
AT SCHOOLS RITE.
Mount HoIyoke President
Points to Need for Moral
Teaching at Mt. Vernon.

The critical day in which we live
demands the contribution OF women as
we'll as of men, DR.. Mary E. Woolley,
nationally known educator and head
of Mount Holyoke College, told group
Of students and socially prominent
alumnae Of Mount Vernon Seminary
this morning.
This was the first event of the all
day program planned at the school in
honor of the Tooth birthday anniver-
sary of Mrs Elizabeth Somers. founder
of the seminary and pioneer in the
field of preparatory education for girls
which was the forerunner of the mod
ern idea of the junior college.
Speaking IN the Somers Memorial
Chapel, Dr. Woolley quoted President
Gates of the University of Pennsyl-
vania:
Experimental sciences have made q
marvellous contribution to human
life, but mere knowledge without con-
troll is vain, and mere intellect with
out character may we'll be vicious.
Thus it is that ! foresee that uni
versities. facing the challenge of I'M
controlled physical forces in oi1r time.
must bend their energies increasingly
toward moral control Of those forces;
that they must emphasize character
equally with intellect; that they must
teach ethics as we'll as philosophy:
that the desirabiltiy of public service
must be grasped as clearly as are
the principles of economics, and
that good citizenship must receive
as much emphasis as good literature"
Mrs. Davies Present.
Among those present at the opening
ceremonies was Mrs. Joseph e. Davies,
wife of the United States Ambassador
to the Soviet Union. who left the Sc
clusion in which she is convalescing
from an illness contracted in Russia
to participate in the exercises of the
school, of which she is an Alumna
trustee.
Clad in dark blue, Mrs. Davies rose
from her seat in the choir and re-
ceived with 10 other former graduates
bronze medals for alumna achieve
ments.
The program opened with singing
of the alma mater by the student
body, the lower grade girls clad in
white skirts and the junior college
students in blue skirts. all wearing
the blue school blazer.
After the invocation by the Rev.
| Ulysses G. B. Pierce and musical Sc
lections by the Washington String
| Quartet biographical sketch OF Mrs.
Somers was delivered by DR.. Jean D.
Cole, head mistress Of the seminary,
who told anecdotes in the life of the
| founder and pointed out Mrs. Somers'
contributions to education.
| At the end of the ceremony two
| tablets were unveiled in the rear Of
the chapel by Miss Polly Trees Of the
| class of '36 in memory of Mrs. Somers.
This afternoon, following lunch
con at the school for the "old girls"
exhibits of work by the girls were to
be shown in the library and moving
pictures OF life at the seminary were
to be shown in the gymnasium.
Mrs. Somers a Pioneer
In conjunction with tableau
made by the girls Of all the costumes
that have prevailed during the past
100 years, large birthday cake with
hundred candles was to be cere-
moniously cut at 4:30 pm.
Tonight at the Mayflower Hotel, the
days activities will be concluded with
banquet at 8 O'Clock, with Mrs. Olga
Stokowski, well-known musician and
former wife of the nationally known
orchestra conductor, as speaker of the
evening. She will discuss Music as a
Social Force"
Mrs. Somers was head mistress Of the
Seminary for 40 years, from 1875 to
1915. AS long ago rs 1887, she intro
duced Current Events as a course of
study and invited the ablest advocates
OF both parties in Congress to speak on
current topics at the school. In 1875,
she instituted collegiate division
which was the pioneer effort in the
junior college conception, and her "at
home" became something of a center
OF Washington cultural life where the
students were presented to literary
celebrities Of the day.