At Ann Arbor

Fifteen hundred of the 2,100 members of the Modern Language Association of America attended its annual meeting at the University of Michigan. These men and women are teachers of English, German or the Romance languages. The organization is worldwide. Its discussions center on methods of teaching and on new discoveries in literature and phonetics.

Dr. Marion LeRoy Burton, President of the University of Michigan, in a speech of welcome discussed the desire of the American college student for freedom to think for himself. "The English student has intellectual freedom, and in this branch of life is considered a man, while in matters of conduct he is considered a boy and is curtailed by rigid rules. The American student must attend classes and take examinations and is considered a boy in this phase of college life; but he is treated as a man in matters of conduct. The problem ... is whether the student is to be considered a man and given the opportunity to display his intellectual capacity."

Princeton has led the way already with the abolition of compulsory attendance at classes, and with a modification of the examination system. Harvard has also liberalized her examination program. Recently there was an abortive movement at Columbia to relieve a certain portion of the student body from examinations. More measures of the same sort are expected to follow in various parts of the country.

Literary criticism. Dr. Albert Feuillerat, professor in the University of Rennes, France, used his address The Future of Literary Criticism, as a chance to denounce "the analytical critic." "He has become so obsessed in dissecting literary works that he has practically forgotten that literary works are written that they may be enjoyed by all those who read them, critics included." Professors will have to cease being what the late Sir Walter Raleigh called them in England, "trained bores," and become humane as well as erudite.

A more technical talk was given by Hans Kurath to the phonetics group of the Association. He endeavored to prove that the dialectic differences between the various sections of the United States originated in the regional dialects of the British Isles. Thus New England derives its speech largely from southeastern England--though the influence of Ireland has been a very disturbing one during the past few generations. Professor Kurath began with a discussion of mid-Western pronunciation.

Hauptmann. In the Germania group, Albert B. Faust, professor at Cornell University, said that when he visited Gerhart Hauptmann in Germany during the past summer Mr. Hauptmann expressed a desire to visit the U. S. during the next year incognito in order that he might observe the Government and people. He plans to place his observations in book form as an assistance to the new Republic of Germany.

German. John P. Haskins of Princeton University presented the results of an inquiry, said that the teaching of German in the schools of the country, hampered by war-time legislation, is "very slowly coming back to its own."

Unconventional Convention

7.400 college boys and girls.

In terms of a football crowd--not many. In terms of a conference of undergraduates interested in Christian missionary movements, they made at Indianapolis last week "the largest student gathering ever held in the United States."

They were the 6,000 American students and 1,400 missionaries and foreign students attending the ninth quadrennial convention of the International Student Volunteer Movement.* It represented all the important colleges in America and abroad. Among the delegates was the son of an African jungle king, adorned with a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University.

Having convened, they spent four days in listening to important speakers and the fifth in open discussion groups on current topics. The convention was usual enough in most respects, but unconventional in the eyes of precedent for the amount of criticism loosed. The speakers all concurred in believing that there is a great deal for Christian countries to clean up in their own borders before sending expeditions to the heathen lands.

Dr. Walter Judd, opening the meetings, asked: "What is wrong with the world? How did it get in such a mess? What is the way out?"

Paul Blanchard, Secretary of the League for Industrial Democracy, spoke on Modern Industrialism: "Americans boast of 57-story buildings, while underneath, store girls are sweated to death at eight and ten dollars a week. ... If Jesus Christ worked in a modern American factory he would be immediately fired as an agitator, for our Lord would undoubtedly have stood up for the rights of the workers."

Dr. Willis King, President of Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., charged America with being the greatest sinner in regard to taking human life. "Since 1885 in this country there have been put to death more than 4,000 colored people by lynching and mob violence."

Dr. Paul Harrison, for twelve years a medical missionary in Arabia, said: "Unless you are willing to grant equality to Negroes, Chinese and Japanese, you have no right to criticise British administration of India, or French administration of Syria."

Enthusiastic steps were taken for the founding of a "youth movement," similar to that which swept in waves over Europe at the close of the War, when the younger generation attempted to organize itself against the materialism of its elders. Sherwood Eddy, in support of this, said: "The movement is a protest against the old social order. Over Europe as a whole, one-tenth of the people possess approximately nine-tenths of the wealth." With reference to America, he asked: "Is there no autocracy in industry when for 25 years from 1881 to 1906 we averaged 1,470 strikes a year, and, for the five years after our entry into the war we have averaged nine or ten a day?"

The conference expressed hope that half a million Americans in their 'teens and early twenties would join in such a movement.

From the discussion groups it appeared that, by and large, Collegiate America is overwhelmingly in favor of the World Court and that there is considerable support of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was vehemently denounced by non-undergraduate speakers.

* The Student Volunteer Movement was founded in the early 'nineties at Princeton. It has since spread to all parts of the world. More than 10,000 graduates of American colleges have taken up Protestant missionary work through its direction. Its membership in England and Ireland alone is over 16,000 students.