The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-06-15
The Human
Side of the
News
Blu EdWin c. Hill

On GLlS Walls VI bIlC AuSC VIZ
college dining room, completely
encircling it, are large brass
plaques, bearing the names OF the
members of each graduating class
and the class motto, starting with
1873. The notices, with rare ex-
ceptionS, are Greek and Latin, the
Greek predominating in the early
years. 1t is alumni day, and Wis
itors note that for once in their
lives-only once-their names were
scrolled in imperishable brass.
"Ad Astra per Aspera," natu-
rally breaks in boldly in the earlier
years. 1t was fashioned in the
glorious upsurge of the Brook
Farm culture and the ensuing
years. and it has ridden high on
the gonfalon of a thousand classes
in q thousand collegeS-perhapS
MANY thousands. They are all
brave notices: ''Nil DeSperan-
dunn, Res non Verba, Fortiter, Fe-
deliter, Feliciter, Viz Unta For
tor" Valor, chivalry, deeds rather
than words. fidelity, faith and
Righteousness are acclaimed in
the long pageant of the years.
Nobody would ever think OF
reading the notices, or bordering
them, except, perhaps, an unre-
constructed reporter. Two pros
perous-looking, bald, perSpiring.
paunchy alumni are furtlVely
matching for the luncheon and
trading stories amid the babble OF
the old grads, mothers in pretty
print dresses and a scramble OF
youngsters, unusually solemn and
decorouS in the breakaway from
old Alma Mater.
GREEK AND LATIN
But there is a little story in
scribed there in brass for one who
will take a stroll all around the
dining room. Down through the
boom years the notices boom
away bravely in Greek and Latin.
Anything but English. When they
want to convey the idea that they
intend to keep showing on, what
ever happens, and perhaps find
ing no Greek or Roman equiva-
lent, they turn to German and
make it "Voerwarts." The year
1888 marks the break into Eng
lsh. and there's the story which
one who just sits and drinks iced
tea may read. The motto is:
COURAGE AND PATIENCE"
And after that there are no more
notices.
This piece might have been
called mo More Notices" for, if
one looks in on a college or two
at commencement, and gets the
drift of the baccalaureate sermon,
the commencement and Phi Beta
addresses, and pieces this out with
q symposium Of collegiate outglv-
ingS in the papers, he will sense
a profound change of attitude in
faculty and undergraduates, new
approach to mundane reality
which can't be rolled up neatly in
q Greek or Latin capsule.
I talked to one student who said
he didn't know about the old mot
toes and why 1887 wasn't having
one, but he could direct me to a
couple of "drips" who knew all
about them. He didn't help much,
but I had no trouble finding a
keen lad, incidentally one of the
Summa cum laude boys, who veri-
fled my suspicion that colleges
aren't what they were when I went
to school.
81 think you'll find" he said,
''that more students are major
ing in economics and political
science than at any time before.
They aren't giving us any more
formulas for success, for achieve
ment. The professors are telling
us they don't know the answers.
There is in all the colleges, &C.
cOrding to my observation, a
realization that terrible wars
may come. There is a realiZa-
ton that the present Onrushing
drive for labor organization may
mark a devastating conflict be-
tween capital and labor, or it
may be a phase of transition
era in which a rational solution
will be found.
college economic faculties
and intelligent undergraduates
reexamine price economics, and,
In their view, no avoidance of
periodic initiation and disaster
is possible in the parallel rise of
wages and prices. They note
the rising power of the state all
over the world, and they take
account Of the possible or prob
able fate of the once free indi-
vidual as this trend continues.
They appraise democracy, COM
munism and faSciSm and Stimu-
late us not only to examine the
theories and distractions of
these systems, but to weigh their
achievements.
when they are discussing
war and the causes of war they
swing into trade routes, credit
and raw materials, and we are
prOdded to an examination of
such problems as, say, the sur
vival of our cotton industry un.
der a complete severance of
trade relations with all the rest
Of the world. They raise the
question Of whether finance
and capitalism is possibly COM
ing to an end of the expansion
era and entering an epoch of
gradual transformation"
'"They much teach you some