WEEKLY University Courier.
PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY COURIER COMPANY
Every Friday Morning.
J. SULLIVAN, President. F. T. OAKLEY, Sec'y.
EDITORIAL STAFF.
C, S. METCALFE, '86. F, W. BARNES, '88. B, K. BRUCE, '88. ELLA ROPER, '88. VICTOR LINLEY, '88. W. L. KEHL, '88. NETTLE BROWN, '88. LAURIA LYONS, '88.
BUSINESS MANAGERS.
W. Y. MORGAN. | J. SULLIVAN.
Lock Box 251.
. MOTTO. —Fraternity Rule Must Be Broken.
Entered at the Post Office at Lawrence, Kansas, as second class matter.
Cutler's Petroleum Engine Print.
Our Circulation.
LAWRENCE, K A.N., JAN. 1, '85.
To whom may concern:
This is to certify that I have for the past three months been printing from 800 to 1,000 copies of The Weekly University Courier per issue for the Courier company, with steady increase.
H. A. CUTLER, Publisher.
To say that Oread came to the front last Friday, as she always does in an emergency, is a mild way to put it.
We are not yet quite prepared to enthuse over the representative from Kansas in the inter-state oratorical contest.
It would be a good thing for the literary socities to add a provision to their constitutions only allowing those members to vote at elections, who have been in the society at least one month, and have performed upon the literary program at least once.
The advanced instructors in Greek and Latin all over the country are beginning to favor making those studies elective. By this action the classical lecture room would be freed from the drones and idlers, who are there merely because they have to be.
Governor Martin's proclamation setting apart Thursday, April 2d, as Arbor Day, will be found in another column. The purpose set forth as to the observance of such a day is very praiseworthy, and by all uniting to carry out this design by deed as well as word, much good will result therefrom to our glorious young state.
The base ball season is here once more. In our University there is plenty of first class material to make a splendid team. Let some live men take hold of this matter, and there will be plenty of opportunities to make good games. The writer has several letters from eastern clubs desirous of making dates with us during their western tour.
The Alarm, a socialist organ published in Chicago, is being mailed free to quite a number of K. S. U. students. German Universities may harbor nihilistic and socialistic
schemes, but when the advocates of this doctrine come to us and ask sympathy for dynamiters and midnight assassins we must without much respect and with considerable emphasis say No.
The city election will be held in a few days. As a matter of advice to some of our would-be politicians, and especially those not old enough to vote, we must say, don't meddle with city politics. If you are a resident and of age we have no objection to raise. The argument is often advanced that scheming and wire pulling has a tendency to and does prepare us for our contact with the outside world. Looking at the last effects of the last campaign of one of our literary societies the conclusion readily comes that politics in the K. S. U. are a curse to the institution. The general methods of the politician are not countenanced by any of the better classes of the American people, and even in our own University there are many who are looked upon as being ready to make a bargain as soon as any ward politician in town. Politics may be fascinating, but the truth is evident that when you mix study and politics one wins at the other's expense, and it is only too frequent that the loss effects time study and money.
Why This Thusness?
Recently there has been a rumor spread about among the students that the faculty looked with disfavor upon the proceedings of one of the literary societies, and was about to take steps toward an examination into its affairs. Though this report has happily been discovered to have been utterly without foundation, it has brought to the notice of the society members one unpleasant fact. During the whole of the present year not more than two of our professors have attended a meeting of either society, and such a thing as a member of the faculty being seen in the halls on a Friday afternoon has been sufficient to furnish evidence to many that some dure punishment was soon to come from the powers that be upon the organization.
The statement of this fact should call for an explanation. In no college in the land are the relations between faculty and students so pleasant and friendly as in the University of Kansas. No where else is the whole body of students so devoted to the interests of the institution. And yet these literary societies are the chief organizations among the students; are almost the only places in which they meet on a free and equal footing; are nearly the only means by which the pulse of their feelings, ideas and self work can be felt. Why do not more professors attend these Friday afternoon meetings, mingle more friendly with those whom they instruct during the week, and learn to know more of those whom they govern?
Our Position on the Fraternity Question.
If they should do so, we are sure that they would not only better understand the students, and be aided by that in their work of government, but they would also exercise a good influence upon the societies, improve their work and general tone, and make the members feel that the faculty were really interested in them other than as machines in the class room.
We are often asked to define our position on this much argued question, and by friends and foes our attitude is sometimes misrepresented. At the beginning of the year, when enemies were attacking the Courier on all sides, and especially in the rear, we laid down our platform upon this subject, and have endeavored never to depart from it.
The chief timber out of which the fraternity plank of our platform is constructed, is Justice. We believe that no matter whether a man wears the glittering badge of a secret society or not, he is entitled to the advancement and promotion which are due to his ability. We believe that brains should be the standard of preferment and not party. We believe that fraternities have a great influence for good. We know that as political machines they are tyrannical, despotic, unjust.
If any one is disposed to doubt this, let him cast his eye upon any election, upon any organization in which there have been struggles for control, and say if he does not see each fraternity striving to advance its men and coming up solidly to their support.
The constitution of the Courier company does away with this. We have the ardent support of some of these fraternities, who are willing to acknowledge the correctness of our position. We have the solid backing of nearly all non-fraternity men in the University, who are willing to assert their rights and work for justice.
Then, too, we believe that "fair play is a jewel," and one worth working for. Fraternity men and nonfraternity men who are willing to come together, lay aside their factional jealousies and aid in building up a paper which will be an honor and credit to the University and the students, are cordially invited to join us, to aid us.
The COURIER is not "anti-fraternity," as some seem to imagine, and others like to assert. The underlying principle upon which we stand is that contained in the couplet:
Be he barb or be he frat,
A man's a man, for a' that.
The benefits arising from the establishment of a chair of pedagogy would be of great value. As a large per cent of the graduates of our University follow the profession of teaching, it follows that what all instructors of ability and long standing say concerning good teachers—which is, that they must have that training which is not afforded in the regular class recitation—must have more force.
Many of the best colleges of this country have established a permanent chair of pedagogy, and this goes to prove that they have recognized the benefits derived from a source of this kind are of great advantage to any one, regardless of the particular profession he has chosen.
Another reason in favor of this is the fact that at present there are many students in the Normal department to whom the University is in justice bound to provide a means of furnishing the course. These students, accepting the faith of the institution, have come here expecting to complete the course. If the Normal's department is entirely removed they will have no means of finishing their course at the K. S. U., and much injustice and inconvenience must necessarily result from this action. Should a chair of didactics or pedagogy be established here, those having partially finished a course could be provided for with but a slight inconvenience.
It is our hope that the faculty and regents will see this matter in the same light as have many of the older colleges in the land.
The latest athletic spirit—foot ball on roller skates at Ann Arbor.
EXCHANGE.
The co-operative association at Ann Arbor has been playing havoc with the book dealers.
The professor of higher mathematics at Princeton has accepted a professorship in the University of Texas.
President Porter, of Yale, believes that failures of college and University life are due in most cases to poor preparatory work.
We acknowledge the complimentary remarks of so many of our college brethren, and take all their advice—that we want.
Among the advantages of a college education the Lehigh Burr places the uncredited selections from different authors contained in a graduates newspaper correspondence.
The Delta Tau Delta and Rainbow (Southern) fraternities have consolidated, under the name of "Delta Tau Delta and Rainbow," with an active chapter roll of thirty-eight.
We are happy to correct an error in a statement regarding college graduates in congress, which we published some time ago. Dickinson College is a tie with the University of Virginia for second place, having eight members. We do not blame the Dickinsonian for howling about the way editors take up items which a little observation would show to be false, and give them circulation.
The Hanover Monthly wants to know why it would not be a good thing to debar Preps from the literary societies, just as well as from the fraternities. That is the question the Ohio Wesleyan University student is now asking himself. Some years ago he had a satisfactory answer to the question. The three upper societies agreed to admit no more men except such as were in the college proper; but the rule had not been in operation long before one of the societies violated it. Evil days returned; Prep programs cooled the ardor of the upper classmen, and the societies went down, down. After having reaped the fruit of their folly, they have now reestablished the broken rule.—Transcript.
The marking system is at last abolished—more as an experiment than as an established order. What is thus far developed is by no means startling, although in many cases extremely amusing. The new system, in lieu of marking every recitation, furnishes examinations at times unknown to the class but never more than two months apart. The student is held responsible for everything taken since the previous examinations, and upon the result of these examinations is largely determined the stand at the completion of the course. No teacher is allowed to tell the class at what time the examination in his particular branch will be held; it may be in a day, a week, a month, but the class must be prepared for any emergency.-Crescent.
Inviting.
Pretty and sweet, ever so neat,
Sitting alone in a tete-a-tete seat,
Seeming to say by her negligent air,
Come and sit side of me, sir, if you dare.
Sauce and pet, dying to flirt;
Knowing the ropes and more than expert;
When she goes further and seems to insist,
Who for the moment would dare to resist?
- Argo.
STATE OF KANSAS, EXECUTIVE DEP,
Topeka, March 16th, 1885.
To the People of Kansas:
The custom of appointing an Arbor Day now prevails in eight States of the union, and it is believed that it will soon be honored in all of the States and Territories, the east and west following the lead of the central States of the Missouri valley. The people of Kansas went to planting trees as soon as they began to plow, and increasing millions of shade, fruit and forest trees are planted every year. The love of the Kansan for trees has shown itself on every farm and village lot; in city parks and the grounds of the church and the school, and the God's Acre where our beloved ones sleep their last sleep. This feeling is equally strong in the minds of old and young—in women not less than men; it leads to practical results in increasing the value of land, and in ameliorating the asperities of our climate—that there has been an increase in the rainfall in Kansas is fully proved by the statistics of our oldest meteorologists—and it leads to uses of beauty in adorning our homes, and making them scenes of loveliness, the remembrance of which will follow our children to the last days of their old age. The State which the pioneers found treeless and a desert, now bears upon its fertile bosom more than twenty millions of fruit trees, and more than two hundred thousand acres of forest trees, all planted by our own people.
In view of these facts, and in obedience to the popular will, I, John A. MARTIN, Governor of Kansas, hereby set apart Thursday, April 2, 1882, as Arbor Day, and respectfully ask that it be made a general holiday. School officers and teachers can greatly aid in carrying out the purpose of the day by giving their pupils a holiday, and by devoting special attention to the adornment of school grounds and parks.
Done at Topeka, this 16th day of March. A. D. 1885, and of the State the twenty-fifth year.
[L. S. ] Jxo. A. MARTIN
By the Governor.
E. B. ALLEN, Sec. of State.
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