Evening star., 1939-12-29
Historians Chided
For NegIecting
Folklore
Association Urged
To DeIve Sources
For Valid Material

VI VOuO IVl0lSSu0a
Historians and folklore students
were childed today for failing to de-
velop a technique for utilizing and
interpreting folklore material as a
part of social history.
B. A. Botkin, folklore editor Of
the w. P. A. Writer'S Project, told
a session of the American Historical
Association at the Mayf1ower Hotel
that the folklorist "has been too busy
with the history OF folklore or folk
lore in history, and the historian too
busy with the folklore of history to
do much with folklore as history"
The speaker said regular histo-
rians go to folklore merely as last
resort. when all other sources are
exhausted, while folklorists take q
subtle revenge by attempting to
trace historical legends and to prove
historical facts by folklore.
This history can be written only
In our day, of the immediate past
or present, but even with that the
whole field of American history since
the Civil War is open to u.s." Mr..
Botkin said.
Sandburg's Method.
The speaker said something of
this method has been attempted
successfully in Carl Sandburg's
life of Lincoln, which draws large
ly on the talk of men and women
who ate with Lincoln and heard his
jokes and lingo.
Mr.. Botkin did not place the full
blame on historians and folklorists.
Literary historians and anthropol-
ogists must come in for their share,
he said.
In the class of folk fantasy the
fabulous tales, fairy tales, tall tales
and whoppers have an inverted re-
lation to social history, he de-
clared.
THE historian has real service
to render the folklorists by rescuing
folklore from museums and archives
and from the folklorist himself and
giving it back to the people and
history" he said.
The purpose of the session was to
describe and illustrate how folklore,
folk music, speech and documenting
photographs have considerable pos
sibilities for enriching the historians
field. Other speakers included
Charles Seeger of the w. P. A.
Music Program, Hans Qurath of
Brown University and Roy E. Stryker
of the Agricultural Department.
The Historical Association session
was a part of the Conference of
Historical Societies now in session
here.
Former Soldiers to Speak.
Two former German soldiers were
among the speakers scheduled to be
heard at sessions of the conference.
Prof. Dietrich Gerhard of Wash
ington University, st. Louis, who
served in the German Army during
the World War and later became a
specialist in the history of the Brit
ish Empire while teaching at the
University of Berlin, will participate
in a discussion on Cultural Pat
terms in Modern European History"
Another participant in this ses-
sion will be Ernst Posner of Ameri-
can University, formerly archivist in
the Prussian state archives and pos
SCISSOR of the iron cross for brilliant
service during the war. His father
and grandfather were prominent
physicians in pre-Hitler Berlin.
Annual Address Given.
Yesterdays conferences were cli-
NAKED last night at the annual ban
quet of the American historical
group, at which DR.. William Scott
Ferguson, association president and
history professor at Harvard Uni
versity, gave his annual address.
R. D. w. Connor, archivist of the
United States. who also spoke at the
dinner. told of the Roosevelt Library
at Hyde Park, N. Y, and said that
historians have "cause to rejoice
that President of the United States
has taken pains to assure preserva-
ton of an extensive and invaluable
collection"
Col. William John Wilgus, director
Of military railways for the Ameri-
lean EXpeditionary Force in France,
told a joint session Of the Ameri-
can Historical Association and the
Mississippi Valley Historical Asso-
citation that the United States must
take immediate steps for ultimate
Federal ownership and operation
of the country's railroads and other
transportation means. The longer
this step is delayed, he said, "the
harder it will be for us to take it"
Sees Ownership With War.
Earlier in the joint session Edward
c. Campbell, National Archives his
torian, had asserted that a national
emergency, like the last war, would
precipitate Government ownership
of railroads without a ripple of
comment" He said the present
status of the railroads amounts to
Government management and pri-
vate ownership.
A suggestion that the State De-
partment take practical means to
acquaint English readers with the
cultural achievements of Mexico, as
part of the departments endeavor
to further closer inter- American
cultural relations, was made yester-
day by the Rev. Dr. Joseph B. Code
OF Catholic University.
DR.. Code, speaking at the Goth
annual meeting of the American
Catholic Historical Association, said
1t was regrettable that the full story
of Mexico's contribution to human
thought and progress is not avail
able to the majority of English
readers. If it were, he declared,
'"we would have not only an account
replete with interest and surprises,
but potent means to further closer
cultural relations between our coun-
try and at least one of the Hispanic
American nations"
"Sure Step" to Further Ties.