The Students Journal
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The stock of the STUDENTS JOURNAL company consists of non-transferable one dollar shares. Any student, instructor or employee in University may hold one and only one share.
This paper is on file at the editorial rooms of the University Review, 250 Fifth avenue, New York, where all college men are given a hourly welcome.
Three hundred and two students registered for the Oratorical Association election.
The Board of Regents are in session this week. They are investigating the courses of study offered by the professors, and their methods of instruction.
WE SEEM to take much more interest in the oratorical elections than in the oratorical contests. A casual observer might think we were greater politicians than orators.
An entire edition of Prof. Dyneie's book "Campfires of a Naturalist" has been sold in England. The book also had a very large sale in Chicago during the World's Fair.
The proposed amendment to the constitution of the Oratorical Association, making a change in the method of grading orations was apparently forgotten in the excitement last Friday. It deserves a better fate.
IT APPEARS that the statement made in the STUDENTS' JOURNAL of January 19th to the effect that the State Agricultural College intends to discontinue its military department is erroneous. After this year, military drill will be required of students in the first and second years of the course.
The latest publication of the American Economic Association is devoted to a discussion of "The First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States," written by William Hill. Only those who are acknowledged authorities on the subjects of which they write, are numbered among the contributors to this magazine. Mr. Hill graduated from Kansas State University in 1890, studied for some time at Harvard, obtaining the Henry Lee Memorial fellowship, and is now tutor in Political Economy in the University of Chicago.
THE members of the class in paleontology have each chosen some branch of the fossils of Kansas, and will make special study of it. A part of their work will be to make a collection of all the fossils of their particular branches that are to be found in Douglas county. The results of this investigation if thorough will be published in the University Quarterly
A census is now being taken to find out how much business is done on a credit basis in the United States. A number of students who are interested in work of this nature will aid in gathering the information, which will probably be published by the government.
THE Baker Beacon, in its last issue, claims that the newspapers of Kansas, either from an earnest desire that such a thing should come to pass, or for argument's sake, have misconstrued and misrepresented the resolutions passed by the executive board of Baker University with regard to football. It claims that
the trustees have no desire to have the students stop playing the game. We had no intention to misrepresent. The resolution reads, "We believe * * * that the game should not be permitted hereafter in Baker, unless the rules of the game be * so changed and modified as to prevent what is usually called 'mass plays' or 'flying wedges.' Will the Beacon please explain what this portion of the resolution means?
THE Ariela, a college paper published at the University of Minnesota lead recently almost the entire space of one issue devoted to the discussion of the question whether the Seniors should substitute an address by some prominent man for the usual commencement day exercises. We read also that the faculty of Syracuse University has granted the students' petition to be allowed to make such a substitution. These are but two instances illustrative of a tendency which seems to be growing. There was some agitation in favor of such action in this University both last year and this year, but it has been without effect. We do not believe that Commencement day exercises conducted by the students should be given up.
Commencement day exercises in which the graduating class takes no part have no significance. On that day the class is supposed to show, to some extent at least, the result of their four years work; and it must be a very medicinal class whose only attainment is the ability to step up and receive a diploma at the close of exercises conducted by a hired lecturer.
The argument against Commencement exercises is that as at present conducted they are long and uninteresting. The first objection may be a reasonable one and some improvement in that line may be possible but there can be no excuse if there is ground for the second objection and in many instances it cannot be sustained. We attended the Commencement exercises of the class that graduated from the University last year and we found them very interesting, more interesting in fact than some lectures we have heard delivered by men who were representatives of the class of "prominent men" who are being chosen by the Senior classes of some Universities to do their work on Commencement day. Perhaps our personal interest in the participants had something to do with the greater interest we took in the exercises, and this is a stronger reason why the students should conduct the exercises. The audience who are present on Commencement day are the friends of the graduating class, and they come to see and hear the graduating class. When they want to hear this or that lecturer it is to be presumed that they will go and hear him, but they attend Commencement day exercises for a different purpose.
It is a strange commentary on a students' four years work in college if, at the end of it, he is unable to present anything of interest. But he can if he is willing to devote the time and labor necessary for preparation. It is right here that we believe is to be found the explanation, at least in part, of this tendency we have been discussing. We may honestly believe that the interest in the exercises will be increased by giving some prominent man the chief place on the program, but the way in which we leave a sigh of relief, and say "well, there's that work off our hands" shows that there is another consideration that has considerable weight. The laziness and unwillingness to assume responsibility which are to be found in most human beings, show their influence in this matter.
AN ORGANIZATION such as the University Senate which ended a two years existence about a year ago, could do very creditable work if enough interest could be sustained. The student body contains a large number of good extemporaneous speakers, as events such as the Oratorian election of last Friday show. Perhaps we might get a useful hint from the occurrences at this election, and vary the
regular program by introducing, occasionally, the discussion of some question of especial interest to University students. There is no doubt that great interest would be aroused by such discussions, and we can see no objection to the free and fair discussion of questions that are really of very considerable importance to the student during his stay at the University. Greater interest would thus be aroused in the organization.
THE student who devotes all the time he gives to study, to poring over text books is in danger of becoming a huge intellectual sponge, developing his "absorptive" faculties along attaching the same value to all knowledge from no matter what source, and accepting all opinions without question
A good corrective of this tendency is to be found in the discipline obtained in collecting material for a paper on some subject. All works in the library bearing on the subject should be examined, and although the knowledge obtained must necessarily be second hand yet in weighing the relative importance of various kinds of evidence, and forming a judgment as to the reliability of various authors the student may exercise the same qualities on mind as the scholar who is carrying on original research.
THE agreement to postpone the election of officers of the Oratorical Association until a new registration of students could be made, disposes of the difficulty in a very fair and sensible way. This solution of the matter would probably have been adopted at the meeting held last Friday if the different factions had not been so suspicious of each other. It was not right to deprive those who had registered, of the privilege of voting, as would have been done if only the stockholders had voted; on the other hand there was a considerable number at the meeting who had no right to vote, either because they were not students of the departments of Science, Literature and the Arts or because they had not registered. Therefore it would not have been just to allow all present to vote. The fair thing to do was to call a new election and have another registration.
A great deal of excitement has been aroused over a very small matter; but it will have been of considerable benefit if some of the questions raised are satisfierly settled. There is some doubt as to just what students are members of the departments of Science, Literature and the Arts. It would also be advisable, if possible, to make it unnecessary for law students to go through the force of registering as students in some study in the departments of Science, Literature and the Arts which they do not desire to take and which they do take only because they cannot, otherwise, enter the contest. These matters should be disposed of, as well as a number of amendments that have been proposed.
The Oratorical Association
An adjourned meeting of the Oratorical Association will be held in the University chapel, Tuesday, February 13. A book for registration was prepared and placed in the Chancellor's office which was open to all students of the department of Science, Literature and Arts for registration during February 5th, 6th and 7th. In the coming meeting besides the regular business of election of officers for the ensuing year, the following amendment to the constitution will be proposed: "Ad regularly enrolled undergraduate students of the department of Science, Literature, and the Arts of the State University of Kansas shall have the right to vote for president, secretary, and second delegate of the Oratorical Association." This will give the right to vote for the officers mentioned to all students who would be eligible to compete in the local contest, and will certainly be fairer for all than the former method of voting by registration.
Students if you want a good hair cut go to Jies Hows, 915 Mass. St.
OUR STUDY WINDOW.
The professor of political economy in the University of Zurich told Mr. Greenland when the latter was about to start for America to advance the cause of socialism, that he would not find a single noble-pitied or courageous young man there. What was meant by this statement was that it would be impossible to find in the United States a young man whose permanent motive was not money-getting; that everyone would sacrifice his convictions, if not his honor and his friends, for the sake of private wealth. This sweeping statement is a serious charge and should be investigated. We must not turn it aside as a question of no importance, nor as one in which there may not be much truth. We are apt to look upon criticisms of America by Europeans as inspired by envy or by jealousy of the marvelous success of our great and glorious commonwealth. A great many consider a foreigner as a person not to be trusted, and to them the very term foreigner, has become one of reproach. Who has looked over the library copy of Matthew Arnold's criticisms on America, without being impressed by the question marks and uncomplimentary expressions written upon the margin by the pencils of patriotic students? And such question marks and expressions were often written beside some very pertinent advice concerning questions which are now agitating the minds of our leading scholars and statesmen. We must be willing to discover and acknowledge our faults, even though they be shown to us by some odious Englishman or German. We must be educated so that our vision may extend even beyond the boundaries of the United States.
The professor at Zurich however has made a statement which ought surely to be a hard one to defend. We know that wealth is sought more eagerly in America than in any other country, that here death comes earlier, faces grow careworn sooner. It seems just to admit that wealth is the motive of the typical American. That it is the great motive of all Americans is another question. The professor of political economy was surely ill-advised in making his decision, as he has not been in America and probably knows few of our citizens aside from those who attend his University; but strange as it may appear, after a residence of twenty years, Mr. Groudlund seems inclined to accept his statement. It is no doubt true that many would sell all that is good within and without them for gold, and that the vast majority are willing to suppress their convictions for the same commodity. Indeed in many cases it is necessary under the existing conditions to conceal one's opinion in order to live. A man has many duties which oftimes are conflicting. It is right and necessary before taking any important step to count the cost both to one's self and to others. Thus a man may refrain from throwing himself into a work which he believes to be good, and at the same time be neither mean-spirited nor a coward.
But with all these considerations it is evidently wrong to believe that there cannot be found in America men and women who are willing to sacrifice wealth and position for a good cause. It is impossible that we should be so different from other people in this respect. In our short past, petitions, heroes, and martys have not been wanting. So then if a cause which we are advocating fails to find any supporters, we must not accuse people of being either fools or cowards. There are a few who are neither fools nor coward, and if they come not to be our champions, we should examine again the theories and our exposition of them. We most support our faith by logic if we wish to convince. Our faith alone will not help faith to others.
That the assassination of great individual fortunes is harmful is generally admitted, mostly however, by those who have
not amassed great individual fortunes. But though the many would not be averse to accepting a million dollars even without labor, there are a few who believe that they see something higher and nobler. It is our misfortune that we are obliged to admit that the Zurich professor had excellent reason for believing what he said, and that he was not very far from right. But even one noble soul weighs much in the balance, and we should ever be eager to search it out and claim it for our own.
A book of some interest has recently come to the library. It is entitled the "Gospel and Revelation of Peter." The book contains two lectures, one on the Gospel and the other on the Revelation, and the Greek texts of the fragments as found. Mention had been made of works of Peter in several early documents, but nothing except that they had once existed, was authentically known of them. There seems to have been considerable doubt in early times concerning its authorship, and dissensions arose in some of the early churches as to whether it should be read or not. The fragment was dog up in 1886 in an ancient cemetery in upper Egypt, and is now in a museum at Cairo. The French Archaeological Mission at Cairo have the honor of its discovery and identification. The Gospel fragment contains the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord and it would be interesting to compare it with the other accounts. Portions of it correspond with the views of the Docetae, who held that the sufferings of Christ were but seeming sufferers. Thus it says: "And they brought two malefactors, and they crucified the Lord between them. But He held His peace, as is in no wise having pain." Hippidytus, who wrote a Retention of All Heresies, makes a curious suggestion as to the origin of the word Docetae. He says that they were well named Docetae, because they had a doko or beam of timber in their eye. There is much evidence for believing that this Gospel is the Gospel of the Docetae.
The Revelation of Peter is of interest
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