Swarthmorean 1940 March 15

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SWAI?THM(1IU PA.
BWABTHM01ITB
COLLKGK
L1BKAKY
REGISTER
BEFORE
MARCH 23
THE SWARTHMOREAN
EASTER EGG
HUNT
MARCH 23
VOL. XU, No. 11
SWARTHMORE, PA., MARCH 15, 1940
PARENTS RAISE
MANY PROBLEMS
Home    and    School's     Second
"Information Please" Program
Stirs Acute Interest
Questions submitted at the "Information Please" program on Tuesday evening revealed the fact that teachers
and staff of Swarthmore public schools
are eager to cooperate with parents,
with care to give them helpful insight
into school problems, even while carrying heavy teaching and extra-curricular
loads. An alert audience appreciated
this spirit of cooperation.
A spirited discussion on the physical
education program for Junior High
School boys elicited the most attention
on program matters affecting Swarthmore's youth. William C Ziegenfus'
discussion of the subject indicated that
Junior High School football appears to
come from a demand by parents, and
boys reluctant to leave the field. Divided
into a three season program for fall,
winter, and spring, a bewildering number of teams and games are carried
by our athletic department for boys,
including football, speedball, touch
football, soccer, basketball, and soft-
ball. Despite this variety, the demand
for Junior High football has placed a
heavy burden on staff and equipment.
The new athletic field will alleviate
some difficulty, but will be handicapped
by 4 showers for 100 boys. Even a long
time program of expansion will not
malcc adequate facilities for current
work. In spite of the fine spirit of
teachers to cope with the situation,
the audience had a definite impression
that the department presents problems
of personel; money, and facilities. Mrs.
David McCahan's question in regard
to a former report on our physical
education department initiated a definite request for a formal survey of our
physical education department to be
provided by the School Board at this
time.
Virginia Allen stated that all teachers felt that the after lunch rest
period instituted for small children in
response to parent suggestion, a few
years ago reduces restlessness and fatigue, and giving valuable training in
relaxation. An experiment in desk relaxation at the 7th grade level has likewise proved successful. Teachers all
feel the need for a special room for rest
periods.
Miss Allen gave valuable posture suggestions for parents. "Creating a desire
for it is fundamental," said Miss Allen.
"Parents can create this desire, reduce
fatigue, avoid sending children back to
school  too   soon  after  illness, provide
suitable   exercise,  and  a  balance  diet,
meet  the  need  for a large supply of
proteins and carbohydrates, particularly
at  the  Junior  High  School level."  A
current  posture competition  among elementary  school  children is  resulting  in
older   children   "tagging"   younger   ones
for good posture. Posture is stressed in
the   program,   but   parents   themselves
carry  a   major  role.  Horace  Hopkins
added that parents should be aware of
the significance of good posture when
a youth applies for professional work.
Handwriting questions were answered
by the statement that manuscript writing is used by the 1st three grades, with
cursive   writing   in  higher  grades.  7th
Rraders   are   the   only  ones   fortunate
enough   to   have  special  instruction  in
(Continued   on   Page   Sh)
<«»
Final Vespers Service Sunday
Alexander McCurdy, organist, and
Mora Greenwood McCurdy, harpist, will
give a joint program at the last vespers
service of  the college   year in  Clothier
Annual Financial Report
Shows Surplus Gain
Swarthmore's "Adult Night at
School," self-supporting venture in
adult education, had increased its surplus to $332.75 at the close of the Fall
term of 1939, according to a financial
statement submitted by Dr. H. H. Hopkins, its chairman, to Roland L. Eaton,
president of the Swarthmore School
Board, one of the cooperating organizations. This figure represents a gain of
$94.08 for the term.
Dr. Hopkins emphasized the necessity for the night school to have a
surplus to fall back on in the event
that it encounters an unsatisfactory
response for some term in the future,
since it has no financial support except
the fees collected from the students.
The executive committee, he said, was
of the opinion that this surplus for emergencies should be $300 as a maximum.
"We find that the Swarthmore dancing class carries, for a similar purpose,
this sum of $300," he stated. "It is our
present policy to use further overages
in our school operation for some purpose that will assist in the ordinary
operation of our public schools.
"The overage for our fall term of
$32 is probably not enough to warrant
doing anything with until next Fall. We
hope that we can gradually accumulate
enough to make a really significant contribution to the school in some way."
The student body for last Fall's term
numbered around 325. Totals receipts
were $1,261.09, including $1,233.60 from
registration fees and $24.90 from guest
fees. Disbursements aggregated $1,167.01.
♦ •»
BRAHMS PROGRAM AT
MUSIC CLUB
Mrs. George T. Ashton, of Wallingford
Hills, was hostess to the March meeting
of the Music Club Tuesday evening.
This month's subject was "Brahms".
The hostess gave notes on the personal
character and habits'" of the composer,
followed by a discourse on his musical
works.
The gathering was entertained with a
program of Brahms' selections played by
Mrs. George T. Ashton and Mrs. John
Fawcett and sung by the following women
accompanied by Mrs. David C. Prince
and Mrs. Dorothy Paul: Mrs. Robert E.
Carels, Mrs. Clair Wilcox, Mrs. Frank
Hyatt, Mrs. Thomas Jackson, Mrs.
Samuel Harris, Mrs. E. C. Heg, Mrs.
Edward B. Swisher, Mrs. Cameron P.
Hall, Mrs. E. L. Simpson, Mrs. Harold
March, Mrs. A. M. Bosshardt and Mrs.
Leonard Ashton (conducting).
The composers, Schubert and Schumann, will be the topics for the April
meeting on the 9th of the month at the
home of Mrs. Samuel D. Clyde, Swarthmore and Ogden avenues.
♦ «»	
H. S. "GYM NIGHT"
WEDNESDAY
PRESS MEN COVER
PLAYERS CLUB
Audiences  Caught  Into   Excite*
ment of Hodge Directed
"Front Page
»»»
The boys and girls Physical Education departments of the high school
will have their annual Gym Night
demonstration on Wednesday, March
20, at the high school gymnasium. The
pupils of all classes will participate so
that there will be over 500 boys and
girls in the program. The work which
will be demonstrated will be rhythmic
exercises, tumbling and gymnastic
events, folk dancing, and novelty num
bers which will be interesting to thhe
audience. Everyone is invited.
«»»	
Photos Rate High in Hobby Show
Ernest R. Laws, of Amherst avenue,
carried off a number of major prizes in
the photographic division of the annual
hobby show held for employees of U. G. I.,
Philadelphia Electric Company, and
Philadelphia Gas Works Company. Over
Memorial,  Swarthmore College, at 6:451 two nundred pictures were exhibited in
*    M. Sunday, March 17. f seven dasses of this one division of a
Mr. McCurdy is organist and choir
director of the Second Presbyterian
Church, Philadelphia, and director of the
organ department of the Curtis Institute
°f music.    Mrs.  McCurdy was formerly
harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Sunday's program is as follows: Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Three
Chorale Preludes—Alle Menschen mussen
sterben, Vater unser in Himmelreich,
Erbarm' dich mein, O Herre Gott; Prelude and Fugue in A minor,—J. S. Bach,
Mr. McCurdy; Introduction and Allegro,
Maurice Ravel, Mr. and Mrs. McCurdy;
The Tumult in the Praetorium from the
Passion Symphony, Paul de Maleingreau,
Mr. McCurdy; Clair de lune, Claude
Debussy, Mr. and Mrs. McCurdy;
^ommunion, Richard Purvis, Toccata on
ft- Theodulph", Roland Diggle, Mr.
McCurdy.
show which was held on the second and
third floors of the Edison Building,
Philadelphia.
Mr. Laws won first prize, the major
photo award of this year's show, as well
as first prize in the landscape section
(with a barnyard scene taken on State
road approaching Drexel Hill, second in
the portrait class (with a likeness of his; Auxiliary aided a family in need by the
mother),   second   in   the  miscellaneous
division and a merit award in landscapes.
 ♦ »»
The notorious, maligned "Gentlemen of
the Press" are to be seen in brisk action
at the Player's Club this week. Directed
by D, Malcolm Hodge, an excellent cast
is presenting "The Front Page" in rapid-
fire, staccato tempo.
Written by Ben Hecht and Charles
MacArthur this play has had a variegated
career. Following a long Broadway run
it appeared under the same name in a
movie version and is currently popular
in an amazing phase as the cinema
attraction "His Girl Friday". Through
all these changes it has retained its
original vitality and fire. Your reviewer
has seen it in three of these reincarnations
and finds the Players Club production
equal to any.
Its reporters are just as hardboiled,
their contact with crime and politics just
as profanely intimate as the play's
creators conceived them to be and that's
saying a good deal 1
Mr. Hodge plays Walter Burns, the
Examiner's managing editor, as he was
meant to be played. Mr. Burns was a
tough hombre. There's not a moment
when he is on stage that the action doesn't
sizzle and crackle.
The scene is the press room with its
traditiotiafl accoutrements. Here the
reporters, J. D. Narbeth, James R.
Powell, Carl W: Peterson, Harry V.
Bonner, Jr., Bradford Rile, James A. G.
Campbell, Jr., (who is the "relaxingest"
reporter we ever saw) play poker, dine,
bellow into telephones, spy on each other,
envy "regular" job holders, but show
speed and alertness when they swing into
action.
They do nice work, those reporters,
Hildy Johnson, Burn's star reporter, is
the pivotal figure. Played by Thomas
L. Lueders III, in his second appearance
with the Players- C'lVi, ho is an ;.**/stJfoi,
vigorous personality whose wish to escape
into a normal existence wars with spell
of a scoop.
Elizabeth Swan as Molly Malloy of the
streets does another effective emotional
part rising particularly to the second act
peak. This scene in the Players Club
production rings truer than that in the
Hollywood version.
June Atkiss as Peggy is a charming
magnet who adds to Hildy's confusion.
Mildred Bond is a good Jennie; Frances
Porter MacNeil gets nice shading into her
Mrs. Schlosser and Elizabeth May Roberts
as Mrs. Grant is excellent, as always.
Thomas H. Lueder's Mr. Pincus is—
well don't miss it! He does a lot with
a ibit part. Alexander Dryden is
Woodenshoes Eichhorn to the life. Stafford Parker as Louis is a smooth
gangster. Samuel Evans, Jr., tas the
mayor out mayors mayors and Irvin R.
Mac Elivee is a politician's sheriff. F. H.
Woodroffe as Williams is a vague and
colorless victim and Jackson K. Matthews,
Rowland K. Harrison as deputy sheriffs
and Alan C. Wood as officer Hagerty
were adequate.
"The Front Page" is another high light
in a superlatively good Players Club
season.
Legion Auxiliary Review
Fourteen members of the American
Legion Auxiliary met at 10 A. M. on
Wednesday of last week under the leadership of Mrs. Robert T. Bair, to sew for
the Red Cross.
Through the courtesy of Mrs. John E.
Michael, a third sewing machine was
added to the two usually in action on
meeting days.
At 2 P. M. Mrs. Dewees Shallcross
talked informally on her county work
among veterans and deliquent children.
Pitiful to relate, she said, the largest
number of cases of delinquency occur in
the middle class where mothers leave
their offspring to run the streets. Playgrounds and community clubs are felt
to lie the great need in order to find
occupation for little idle hands. Rehabilitation to the Auxiliary means help to
the maimed in body or mind, often a
family is kept together by such assistance.
Recently   the  local   Legion   Post  and
$2.50 PER YEAR
Last Chance to Register
Saturday, March 23, is the last
day for those not on the voting
list to register in order to qualify
for participation in the Primary
Election on April 23.
Harvard Professor
To Talk at College
Dr. Nock's Talks on Friday and
Sunday Will Close Ancient
Religions Series
Arthur D. Nock, Professor of the
History and Philosophy of Religion at
Harvard University, will give the second
and third of a series of talks on ancient
religion, sponsored by the Cooper
Foundation and the departments of
Classics, Philosophy and Religion, in the
Friends Meeting House, on Friday and
Sunday evenings, March 15th and 17th,
at 8:15. In the Friday lecture, entitled
"The Eve of the Augustan Restoration",
he will consider the religious ideas of a
representative Greek and a representative
Roman at the time of the founding of the
Roman Empire. The Sunday lecture will
deal with the tangled issues of "Paganism
and Christianity"; in this lecture, Professor Nock writes, he will try to explain
how and why paganism failed, in spite of
the fact that throughout the three centuries of the empire, it was becoming
more intense.
Though not yet forty, Professor Nock
is already an eminent writer, teacher, and
editor. A native of England, he holds
degrees from Trinity College, Cambridge,
and from Birmingham University, and
before coming to America, he was Fellow
and Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Called to Harvard at the age of
twenty-seven, he became one year later
professor of the History of Religion, and
is now one of the senior members of
Harvard's' distinguished Society of Fel-
'I'i'vc. He is also' tf-Irllow- it the
American Association of Arts and
Sciences, a corresponding member of the
Berlin Academy of Sciences, foreign
member* of the Royal Society of
Lund, and a member of a long list
of other learned societies in England,
France and America.
In demand as a lecturer, he has
delivered the Donnellan series at Trinity
College, Dublin, the Lowell lectures at
King's Chapel, Boston, and the Swander
lectures of the Reformed Church at Lancaster. He was appointed Gifford Lecturer at Aberdeen for the year 1939-1940,
but the second group of this series has
been interrupted by the war.
His publications are numerous. He has
contributed articles in his field to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica and to the
Cambridge Ancient History. He is Editor
of the Harvard Theological Review.
Among his books are the following:
"Early gentile Christianity and its Hellenistic Background"; "Conversion—The
Old and the New in Religion".- "St. Paul"
(in the Home University Library Series).
Using the personal approach, he tries to
interpret the trend of a period by way
of individuals, setting one personality
against another, and matching character
types. His work shows originality, discerning judgment, philosophic background
a nimble pen and ready wit.
■♦«»
Seeks Local Aid for J. M. P.
Mrs. Clarence Franck, local chairman in the state-wide job mobilization
program, requests that anyone having
created a job in cooperation with this
program and supplied their own jobber,
get in touch with her, telephone
Swarthmore 178-W, in order that the
Borough of Swarthmore might receive
credit. Mrs. Franck also asks that anyone in need of a jobber telephone her.
CROWD ENJOYS
SENIOR PLAY
Capable Cast and H. S. Orchestra
Combine Talents for Successful Evening
The ambitious production of Oliver
Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" by
the senior class of Swarthmore High
School was received with evident pleasure
by the large audience of parents and
friends, last Friday night.
The large cast was uniformly good even
to the smaller character parts.
Bob Thorpe as Tony Lumpkin did a
very good job as the roistering, scapegrace son. Dorothy Wilson was appealing
as the provocative Kate. Her asides to
the audience were tellingly delivered and
the timbre of her speaking voice added
interest to her characterization. Ruth
Child as Mrs. Hardcastle did a mature
piece of acting and Tanet Harris as Miss
Neville presented an attractive mid-
Victorian miss.
Hilliard Lubin as Hastings was convincing and well poised as the experienced,
worldly advisor to his friend, young Mr.
Marlow, played engagingly by Wallace
Poteat. Edward Cooley as the bewigged
Mr. Hardcastle had an important part.
Random highlights in the production
were the jolly rallies of the boisterous
group of fellows in the ale house with
Landlord Jim Smith, Horace Hopkins,
William Wetten, Allyn Sayre and James
Jennings obviously enjoying their roles;
and the servants instruction scene with
Arthur Meryweather as Diggory, Charles
Brogan as Jeremy and James Vosters,
George Gray, Theodore Helmuth establishing individual eccentricities and afflictions distinctly and cleverly. Bill Spencer
appeared briefly (but amiably as Sir
Charles Marlow. Mary Ellen Hoot and
Helen Ludwig added color in their minor
roles as maid servants.
The staging was unusually well done
and involved changes which were quickly
.accomplished. The whole performance
wiis nicely timed and geared. *•■•-
Bill Black who as class president
introduced the performance and Jim
Callahan, reader of the prologue deserve
special mention for the poise with which
each faced a steady stream of late arrivals.
Appreciation was expressed to Mary
Armstrong play director and to Helen
Ludwig, student director and understudy.
The High School Orchestra's harmonious and appropriate selections were
much enjoyed by the audience during
the intermissions.
♦ •»
State W. I. L. Annual Meeting
Here
Mrs. Robert C. Disque, as chairman
of the Delaware County branch of the
Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom whose invitation
has been accepted by the state League
to hold its annual meeting at the Strath
Haven Inn, Swarthmore, will be in
charge of arrangements for the meetings which will occur on April 9 and 10.
The Swarthmore branch will be responsible for hospitality under the
chairmanship of Mrs. Frank Reynolds.
Some of the meetings  in the series
will be open to the public.
 »•»
Chamber Music Recital
An hour of chamber music will be
presented on Sunday afternoon, March
17, at 3 o'clock in the library of the Bartol
Laboratory on the campus of Swarthmore
College. Dr. William F. G. Swann and
Dorothy Paul, will play the A major
'cello sonata of Beethoven, and after a
short intermission, the Brahms horn trio
in E flat will be performed by Lucius
Cole, violinist, Joseph Radford, French
horn, and Dorothy Paul, pianist.
All lovers of music are cordially
invited.
Business Assoc. Speaker
The Swarthmore Business Association
will hold its March dinner session at the
Ingleneuk next Monday evening at 7
o'clock.
Herbert W. Gruber, manager of the
Chester field office of the Social Security
Board, will address the gathering.
purchase of six bed sheets, six pillow
cases, one double and one single blanket.
The man of the family, suffering from a
heart ailment, was unable to work.
At last week's meeting Mrs. L. J.
Servais showed fine examples of the
Coatesville Veterans' Hospital men's
work in occupational therapy. On exhibition were a large garden basket made
of broom handles and wicker, two woven
bags and a rug made from old silk stockings.
THE WEEK'S CALENDAR
FRIDAY.    MARCH    15
(1:15 P.M. — Congregational   Dinner Presbyterian  Parish   Hulls'*
8:00 P.M. — Movie "Touching All Bases" High School Auditorium
8:15 P.M. — Second Lecture on Ancient Religion Friends' Meeting House
8:15 P. M. — "The Front  Page" Players Club
SATURDAY.   MARCH   10
8:15 P. M. — "The Front  Page" Players Club
SUNDAY.    MARCH   17
11:00 A. M. — Morning   Worship Local   Churches
3:00 P.M. — Chamber Music Hour Bartol Bldg., College
0:45 P.M. — Last Vespers Service Clothier Memorial
8:15 P.M. — Third Lecture on Ancient Religion Friends' Meeting House
MONDAY,   MARCH   18
7:00 P. M. — Business  Association Ingleneuk
8:30 P. M. — American Legion  Meeting Borough Hall
TUESDAY.   MARCH   19
2:30 P. M. — "Pageant  of  the  Shawls" Woman's Club
WEDNESDAY. MARCH 20
1:0O P. M. — Methodist Missionary Society Luncheon 144 Park Avenue
7:45 P. M. — Annual Gym Exhibition High School Gym
THURSDAY.   MARCH   22
2:00 P.M. — Friendly Circle 101  Guernsey Road