Life, 1912-04-18 · page 13 of 54
Life — April 18, 1912 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page discusses Yale University's social system and college clubs. The text critiques Dr. Wilson's (likely President Woodrow Wilson) attempts to reform Princeton's club culture, arguing such efforts are ineffective. The author advocates instead for competition and individual achievement to naturally adjust social hierarchies. The small illustrations show casual scenes—children playing, figures reading—rather than political cartoons. The main illustration depicts "dangers of all kinds for the women of old Plymouth," showing a colonial-era log cabin with multiple figures, which appears to be a humorous historical reference unrelated to the Yale discussion. The satire targets institutional reform efforts, suggesting that social structures resist top-down change and that individual merit matters more than administrative intervention.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
world up wonderfully. And per- < if the college clubs and societies 1 little out of style it would case olleges, Ye A, OR our part, that is the sort of thing we would like best to have jcfall them, rather than extirpation by jority, as would seemingly have hoppened to the Princeton clubs if Dr. Wilson could have had his reconstruc- tive way with them. Dr. Wilson wanted to do Princeton good and make her young gentlemen diligent, jrotherly and wise. He thought that the Jubs were a hindrance to these pur- ses, and, as we understood it, he is for sweeping up all the clubs and siting them in the ash can. For our part, we didn't like that plan, not lccause we cared for the clubs, but hecause it didn’t seem scientific. The ay to change or destroy a college society system, if that is desirable, not to smash in its head. That has cen done again and again, and several ads always grow out in place of the cashed one. The way is to find a nicrohe to bite it. Competition is one icrobe that may help on such a pur- pose as this, Another is the college ss. If this Yale society system that Johnson has been showing up ceds biting, why doesn’t the Yale press bite it? Do the interests own ¢ whole Yale press? Does “ Bones” ntrol the press hy taking in the chief ditors PROBesey Yale likes its society system, We suppose it is ple: t for the gentlemen on the inside. it is unpleasant for the gentlemen n the outside, what of that? A trav- ler in the West Indies wrote home t month complaining of hings, but especially of the brass band n the steamer. “It is awful,” he ud, “but T know it will do me good. verything that is unpleasant does you ood, That's the whole law of life.” many THERE WERE DANGERS OF ALL KINDS FOR THE WOMEN OF OLD PLYMOUTH Take courage, Yale gentlemen on the “Everything that is unpleas- ant does you good. That's the whole law of life.” If you never penetrate to the in of one of those remark- able Yale qnausoleums, if Tap-day, that astonishing institution, leaves you untapped, you may rebound the harder out into the larger world, where there is a great deal doing that is satisfying to the spirit and can be done by per- sons who learn how. outside. I" scems to us the great thing for everybody is to get interested in life. If one can accomplish that, the details fall into their places. If a young college person achieves it the society system will adjust itself to fit his case, and whether he is inside or outside of it, will neither make nor mar him. There will always be some men who will beat every combination: Undoubtedly there are and will be men to beat the society combination at Yale. Is the celebrated Yale talisman “team-work” the fruit, do you sup- pose, of that combination? Team- work” is great and potent, and yet it is to smile to observe that the two Yale gentlemen who are just now most conspicuous in’ American public life were put there by a coruscating Har vard individualist, whom neither of them has been entirely successful so far in getting along without. Both of these gentlemen were “ Bones” gentle men, and good men they are, too. Per contra, Mr. Johnson has told us in a newspaper interview that Mr. Hunt. the new Mayor of Cincinnati, who took up and won the fight against Boss Cox that Mr. Taft abandoned, is a Yale man who pushed out of his way the Yale society system and refused to bother with it. Per contra again, the political -de- fect of Dr. Wilson, the most eminent adversary of soc be a defect in that team-work which systems, seems to society systems tend to develop. Big men come from wherever they happen to be horn, They are apt now- adays to go to college somewhere, be- cause colleges abound and look like the open door to advancement. But where a big man goes to college doesn't seem to matter much, He picks up his tools anywhere and For such a man a society system that doesn’t fit his needs is just another problem to be solved as he goes along. If the system offers him anything th takes it. If not he walks around it anc goes after the things that he does want. comicbooks.com