1905-06 Volume 30 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

96 THE SCROLL.negie and Mr. Rockefeller have been stupendous. One can hardly conceiveof the importance of Mr. Rockefeller's large donation. We need more colleges—goodcolleges. By this I mean colleges with high ideals, which arefortunately situated, which have done good work in training their students,and which have a future before them. Every town the size of Des Moines,Rockford, Peoria, or Elgin should have a good college. We need the universitiesalso, but we do not need so many of them. There is a widely prevailingbelief that the smaller institution has decided advantages over thelarger in the character of the results produced. This belief furnishes a substantialelement of strength to the cause of the small college.At the 55th quarterly convocation of the University of Chicago,June 13, the convocation orator, Dr. William Peterson,president of McGill University, severely criticized schoolspermitting a lax system of electives instead of requiredstudies for a degree. He said:I often think in these days of electives, and_the glorification of "departments," and even graduate studies, we are too apt to lose sight of the oldideal of a "faculty of arts." The university must be something more than amere nursery for specialists. We all know what it is to have to deal withan uneducated specialist. It is here, as it-seems to me, that the small college,with its more or less fixed curriculum, is having at once its opportunityand its revenge.The Springfield (Mass.) Republican says: The undergraduatesof the University of Chicago are apparently possessedof more humor than reverence. They even dare to makeJohn D. Rockefeller the target of their wit, which, as studentwit goes, is not bad either. The annual comic opera givenby the Chicago students this year deals with such dangerousthings as the methods of frenzied finance, watered stocks,tainted money, and, most dangerous of all, the university'sparticular source of support—John D.'s pocket. Here is oneof the songs, which is entitled "Trusts," and is worth reproducingon account of the cleverness of the satire:A trust is a thing, which, we all must agree,Is to make the rich richer—it's as plain as can be—And its workings are simple as A, B. C. D.,In a wonderful, wonderful way.And, if you will listen to what I say now,And not be impatient, then I'll tell you howThe financier does it without making a row,In a wonderful, wonderful way.He takes some old stock and he waters it well,And fixes it nice, so that no one can tellThat it has been doctored, and then it will sell.In a wonderful, wonderful way.The people come flocking to buy at his price;They sit 'round expectantly, wait for a rise;But the stock never rises—it's cut in two twice.In his wonderful, wonderful wav.