A Growing Interest in the Humanities
ONE OF THE SENIOR FELLOWS REPORTS FOR THE GROUPON CREATIVE EFFORTS OF FELLOWS THIS YEAR
IN AN ADDRESS last month before the Phi Beta Kappa society at Dartmouth, Professor Howard Mumford Jones, critically analyzing the Humanities, pointed out that their decreasing role as vital and popular studies is in a large part due to their failure to integrate their material with the culture of modern America. The student is not so interested in past achievements of European culture as he is in the problems of today's civilization in diis country. This new interest has manifested itself in Dartmouth in the growing popularity of the social sciences, the topical majors, and in the crowded attendance of such courses in the Humanities as Professor K. A. Robinson's lectures on American literature and its social background. It is to be expected, then, that most of the Senior Fellows have undertaken projects which in some way are related to 1937 America.
This of course is particularly true of those men who majored in History, Political Science, Economics, and Sociology. T. W. Johnson, will, I think, make a highly valuable contribution to the History department in his study of one of the dominant habits of American thought. Johnson is spending his year on research into the origin and development of Calvinism, that Puritan mode of living and thinking which has deeply dyed the fabric of American morality. Working with Professors Stevens and Mecklin he has devoted his first semester to a study of the rise of Puritanism in Geneva under the stern auspices of Jean Cauvin, that austere and brilliant young Frenchman who was indirectly responsible for such diverse movements as religious wars of the Reformation and the Watch and Ward society in Boston. Johnson's study thus far, however, has been more than a mere recollection of events. He has made extensive explorations into the social, economic, and political background and manifestation of Calvinism which have "strongly influenced modern culture."
This semester his study is dealing with the Massachusetts phase of the movement. This necessitates extensive research into American colonial history. His chief sources are contemporary journals and narratives, The Colonial Records of Massachusetts, and the publications of various Colonial and Historical societies. The results of this study will be synthesized into a sequel to the first thesis. The aims of this study, in my opinion, predicate a work that fulfills the purpose of the Fellowships to the highest degree. Not only will this study be excellent groundwork for the post-graduate study of history which Johnson plans, but also it will give to Johnson and to the College a valuable treatise on a religious movement of great significance in the evolution of American culture.
STUDY OF COUNTY POLITICS
Another study that attacks a phase of American culture is Rowley Bialla's practical investigations into the complex field of county government. Any freshman in Political Science 1-2 knows that county government is about the least efficient and most corrupted political unit in America. A study such as this should offer workable suggestions for ameliorating these conditions. In order to approach the problem of county government effectively, Bialla has made some study of the English scir (mod. shire) of the tenth century, the direct ancestor of the American county. In the study of the county in New York "the most important fact is that the fundamental character of the modern county has not changed" from that of its remote ancestor.
"The county still serves a dual purpose, being both an administrative area for the central authority and a unit of local selfgovernment." Bialla continues to show that although the growth of democracy in colonial America and in the Jacksonian era widened both the electorate and the elective offices, the essential duality of the county still remained. Recent tendencies in America toward centralization of Federal power over the states and consequent centralization of state authority over the county have not altered this duality. Indeed, the expansion of governmental social action has increased the functions of the county both as an administrative unit of the state and as a locally controlled unit of self-government. In other words, more administrative detail is handled by the county for the state and therefore the duties of the elected county officials are increased, or even the number of officials themselves. As a result politicians instead of technicians hold offices that require training and experience for efficient execution. On the other hand, democratic thinking does not want to see local self-government threatened. "The problem is to enable the county to serve its dual purpose economically and efficiently." After research into the history and fundamental organization of the county, that is the problem Bialla is working on by a detailed analysis of the governmental adequacy of the New York counties.
George Mackey is another Senior Fellow who is devoting his time to a problem of American government. The purpose of his work is to give him an appreciation of the legal aspects of social and economic legislation and the influences of American legal fictions upon the methods of dealing with these problems. Mackey's paper deals with "The Effect of Natural Law on American Constitutional Law." He analyzes the history of the concept of Natural Law and proceeds "to show the prevalence of ideas of natural and inalienable rights inherent in the nature of man, common among writers of the eighteenth century—and—used with success by the leaders in the Revolutionary (American) movement." By analysis of American legal history, Mackey develops his thesis that the Federal Judiciary through "the doctrine of implied limitations on the legislative power," through "the interpretation of the constitutional phrases 'due process of law' and 'equal protection of the laws,' " through .... the concept of liberty of contract .... and through "the theory that the individual citizen must be protected from arbitrary and unreasonable laws" has made theories of natural law a part of modern constitutional law. Mackey goes on to argue that the 18th century concept of natural law, though suited to a pioneer nation of agrarian individualists, has no place in an industrialized urban community where it fosters oppression of the working and middle classes by the controllers of capital whom the doctrine of individual rights protects.
SEARCHING FOR PEACE PROGRAM
William Timbers has undertaken a comprehensive study of the problem of war and peace—a problem of vital and timely import. Commencing his work with selected reading of material which covers general aspects of his field, he has proceeded to "a broad survey of major wars- to discover why men go to war and—what motives—run throughout history to reveal the savage instincts in the human race which are brought into such bold relief in time of war." This portion of his work concentrates on wars since 1870. Thence he proceeds to an analysis "of the precise status of the war disease" among the great powers, surveying their foreign policies, armaments and armament industries, temperaments, economic strength, neutrality policies, and the extent to which peace organizations have reached the citizenry. To complement this survey, Timbers is now (March 10) working on a survey of all efforts towards human unity for the prevention of war and mutual assistance in the arts of peace. "Particularly interesting will be to observe the increasing tendency of nations to bind together," pointing to a day of ultimate world federation. This project will cover not only alliances and ententes, but will emphasize the World Court, the International Labor Union, and the League. The final part of his study will be his own program for peace, based realistically on his previous findings, and aiming not only to show a way to peace but also to show a way to intelligent use of the resources at the command of a war-free world to raise universally the standard of living and happiness.
A work that closely approaches the idea of so-called "pure scholarship," but which nevertheless throws considerable light on why institutions and ideals of modern culture are what they are is Robert Olson's study of the interrelationships of ideas and institutions to be followed by a "critical analysis of great movements of thought as to their fundamental assumptions" and their historical and vital significance. The past semester Olson has worked with Professor Gazely in the field of modern history, emphasizing institutional history. This semester his study will take up the great philosophical schools in an attempt to gain both a rounded conception of their history and influence and to criticize their premises.
POST-WAR FICTION
My own work is another attempt to study a field customarily reserved for the arts in such a way as to bring its relationship with American culture into focus. Always struck by the phenomena—and they were phenomenal—of the 'twenties, I am making a study of American fiction and poetry of that decade. My purpose is to find out the relationship between social and economic conditions and literary art. My interest has centered on the gradual rebirth since the War of "critical realism" in this country. These critics are all myth-breakers, exposing weaknesses in many of the stereotypes which we are accustomed to regard as American ideals. Beginning with Sinclair Lewis, I have written a series of papers which cover the so-called "revolt from the village," tracing the evolution of socially conscious literature from the faint Rousseauism and superficiality of Lewis' critiques of manners, through a growing appreciation of deep-seated social strains, to the purely sociological novel of the '30's, as Farell's "Judgment Day." A similar series is now in preparation on the War novels and poetry of the period which set forth the war- and post-war disillusion of the war-time youth, a dominate social tendency of the period, exemplified at one extreme by the subjective anarchy of Cummings and at the other by the return to classicism of T. S. Eliot. My work is also tied up with the "escapists" like Cabell, the moral criticisms of Dreiser, the revival of Whitman in Sandburg, and a cursory examination of the decayed "good, dear people" novels of such writers as Tarkington. At the end, I hope to have an appreciation of the contradictory forces of social behavior which set the tone of a hysterical decade and thereby better understand the intellectual picture of America today.
Wayne Ballantyne is working on a literary investigation of a particular phase of romanticism—the literature of the sea. Spending last semester in a detailed study of the romantic movement, he is now applying what he learned to the romances of the sea in an effort to find the effect which seafaring has had on literature and the romantic movement as well as on the lives and thoughts of peoples living on the sea. "Certainly there is no literature more romantic, more adventurous than that which has come from the sea." Man's conquest of the ocean is not yet so complete that heroic episodes do not still spring from it. "That spirit of struggle affects the men of the sea " The constant demand of the sea upon individual courage and action makes it a permanent renewer of the romantic spirit. To what extent this reservoir of romanticism influences the literature and the ideals of seafaring nations is the object of this study.
Some of the foregoing projects may seem removed from reality to you who have left the College. It seems to me, however, that all of them represent the most practical form of intellectual research; they are all attempts to relate the past with the present, to understand traits symptomatic (I use the word advisedly) of the present by analyses of the origins of those traits. It is through such vital studies and their curricular counterparts that the liberal arts college is fulfilling a prime duty—turning into the world men who are capable of intelligent criticism of their own society.
For personal development the freedom of the Senior Fellow is of double value. Not only does it make him responsible for himself, but also it gives him an opportunity for expansion of his own intellectual interests beyond curricular boundaries. In the establishment of these fellowships the College has exemplified again its desire to produce men who are not cloistered intellectuals, but are actively intelligent members of society—the criterion Emerson demanded of the colleges.
MEMBERS OF THE SENIOR CLASS WHO ARE FELLOWS THIS YEAR Left to right: Robert E. Olson of Chatham, N. J.; George E. Mackey of Brookline, Mass.;and Thomas W. Johnson of Nahant, Mass.
ADDISON PARKER '37 Of Des Moines, whose report of activityby the Senior Fellows this year is presentedin the accompanying article. He himselfholds one of the coveted senior awards.
THREE UNDERGRADUATES WHO HOLD SENIOR FELLOWSHIPS Left to right: William H. Timbers of Glen Ridge, N. J.; Rowley Bialla of Northport,N. Y., and Wayne K. Ballantyne of Sea Cliff, N. Y.
