Life — February 8, 1923 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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FEBRUARY 8, 1923. “While there. i ae there’s Hope” LIFE PUBLISHING LoMPANY Vol. 81. 2101 London ORces: Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., pendent EC. GOOD deal of newspaper space has lately been filled in trying to determine wheth- er President, Lowell )) of Harvard is right P+ or wrong in ruling that colored _ stu- dents may not live in his Freshman dormitories. The brethren who think that Dr. Lowell is wrong rise up to slam him. The brethren who think he is right are not so vocal, but prob- ably not less firm in their opinions. It is not really Dr. Lowell that is on trial in these matters; it is all of us who are on trial. Each of us puts to himself the question—what would I do about it? The only pe- culiarity of Dr. Lowell is that he has brought a very much discussed and difficult question out into the open and made it necessary to talk about it. It is the question how people of different races may best live in har- mony in this very large and mixed- up country, whether by ignoring dif- ferences of race or by recognizing them and trying to provide enough separateness to prevent friction. The solution of this question may be advanced if every observer will look inside of himself and try to recognize and understand his own in- clinations. It seems practicable to have two or three negroes in those Freshman dormitories. But if the number increases very much, what then? Would it really be wise to re- quire the negro scholars to live in the dormitories so long as you re- quire the white scholars also to live there? Is it highly expedient to re- quire any Freshmen to live in them? Those dormitories represent a great effort to nurse democracy and fel- lowship in Harvard College. Is it successful, or not? These are really difficult questions. 98 Madison Avenue, New York One may read in the paper that there are three million negroes in the South that would like to come North where they think they will have bet- ter protection and more security than where they are. If the infu- sion of negroes into Harvard Col- lege should be very much incréased, this question of the Freshman dormi- tories would really become pressing. Dr. Lowell seems to want to get a decision on it before that happens. What he seems to want to do is to provide that it shall continue to be possible for negroes to be educated in Harvard College. Perhaps the immediate problem may be solved by modifying the re- quirement of residence in the dormi- tories so that students who object to living with negroes may be excused. It is the requirement of: residence that has made the immediate trouble, but the fundamental difficulty lies much deeper than that and involves the whole question of our duty to the negro. HERE is very little comfort just now in talking about poli- tics and it may do us some good to talk about religion. Dr. Grant is our opportunity. He has brought on what promises to be a considerable discus- sion of Christian definitions. It may be that the Christians who give their strength to imitation get farther in knowledge than those who sit up to define, nevertheless it is a good enough time to talk over details of faith and if Dr. Grant induces dis- cussion of such matters, it may be a useful service. When a clergyman is tried for heresy in a Protestant Church in these times the particulars of ac- cepted belief that he dissents from are really as much or. trial as he is. Grant may be more Christian than the Episcopal Church or the Athanasian Creed. The understanding of religion seems to be progressive like everything else. If Dr. Grant's understanding of Christian belief is nearer right than that of Athanasius, the Church ought to amend its views to suit his, but that cannot be don at a heresy trial. What a heresy trial can settle is whether Dr. Grant or some other culprit is precisely as Christian in his views as his Church allows and no more and no less. Ii he is too enlightened for his Churcl and cannot keep his contract to think as prescribed at his ordination, the Church court will be justified in dis- missing him from his ministry. These troubles are a part of the embarrassment which arises from having so many bibles about and letting the common clergy and the laity read them and form indepen- dent opiniorts as to what is Chris- tian. These people will read anything and a great deal of it,—novels scientific books, Freud books, Cou books, some of them even spiritist books, and get anything they can out of them including new notions oi what may be true. If there wer fewer books and newspapers and headlines and only the higher clergy were allowed to read them, this em barrassment of heresy trials might not happen. But, after all, it is not so bad There is new knowledge in the world. There is new understanding to some extent of the meaning of old words and superficial troubles come of it, but truth itself is in a good case and so is the Christian religion Both of them are in a better casc than the ministry, the officers of which are liable at times to find out more truth than they can conveni- ently speak from their pulpits. E. S. M. comicbooks.com