Amherst's Presidency

Their habit of thinking of events as following each other in logical succession, excited the curiosity of some people as to what Calvin Coolidge might do after March 4, 1929, if his "choice" of not running for re-election is respected by the country. And a habit-ridden correspondent of the New York Times wrote the following, which promptly appeared on the front page of that authoritative daily: "Many offers have come to him [Mr. Coolidge] to write, and it is understood that some of the trustees of Amherst College, of which Frank W. Stearns [Mr. Coolidge's close friend] is one, may offer him the presidency of that institution."

The curious public breathed more easily. Ah, yes, to be sure, what a fitting transition; from the pinnacle of U. S. aspiration to a position of cloistered distinction, where Mr. Coolidge could round out his days impressing lofty tradition upon malleable youth by quiet example. No voice from Amherst spoke out to deny or affirm the Times' hint. President Coolidge of Amherst College seemed a development as likely as it was fitting.

But what a shocking development it may have seemed to one man -- a man not named Calvin Coolidge. Only last June Amherst chose a new president and the Amherst Graduates' Quarterly published a series of paragraphs from which the following are excerpts:

". . . He is a scholar with the classical tradition, but personally interested in science and its progress. . .

New England by birth and outlook, familiar with the spirit and life of the West and its educational ideals, he has the point of view, vision, the culture, demanded by Amherst's great history." -- President David Kinley, University of Illinois.

"In my opinion the trustees of Amherst College have shown excellent judgment in their choice. . . . intellectual and spiritual elements that make for true leadership . . . finest traditions associated with the presidency of Amherst College."--Alfred E. Stearns, Principal, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.

"The election . . . ends a long and careful search for the 'rjght man' to succeed Dr. Olds, and there is every reason for confident hope that the right man has been found. ... It is significant that the three members of the board of trustees who, as a subcommittee, made the nomination, have each been prominently mentioned for the office and are generally recognized as well qualified for it. There is logic in the assumption that the judgment of their choice is well based."--Springfield (Mass.) Republican (see p. 20).

These compliments were all addressed to Arthur Stanley Pease, onetime professor of classics at the University of Illinois and later at Amherst College, who, before vacation in June, was unanimously elected tenth President of Amherst to succeed Dr. George D. Olds, who resigned last fall (TIME, Nov. 22).

These compliments, two months old, may last week have turned to ashes for President Pease when he heard no authoritative Amherst voice sound forth to deny that, a "good" man having just been found, a "great" man might almost immediately displant him. But solace for President Pease, if he needed any, lay in the fact that one of his staunchest friends and promoters was Amherst Trustee Dwight W. Morrow, staunch friend and promoter, politically, and also classmate, of President Coolidge.

Dr.Meiklejohn's Experiment

As days decrease before the opening next month of the "Experimental College" at the University of Wisconsin, with Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn* as chief experimenter, President Glenn Frank of the University continues to send out bulletins.

Last week President Frank said there would be some 120 students (men), housed with their faculty under one roof. They plan to study civilizations for two years, then to undertake the usual general or professional college courses leading to degrees. "The gist of the course of study in the Experimental College," he said, "is that it will represent a study of situations rather than a study of subjects. . . . The aim is to keep informal the process of learning."

At Williamstown

At Williamstown, Mass., the Institute of Politics entered into its second week of conversational diagnoses of the civic ills of the world.

P: Professor Henry R. Spencer, of Ohio State, saw a U. S. Mussolini lurking in public apathy toward public problems. "When public spirit sleeps, the dark powers have their chance," he said.

P: Professor Charles Austin Beard, historian, formerly of Columbia University, ridiculed President Coolidge's "wearing cowboy breeches and fishing with worms." He predicted an alliance between the South and West as defense against the Eastern capitalistic control of politics. He defended the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill as "an experimental adventure."

P: Professor D. S. Tucker, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said people were not moving from farm to city fast enough. He indicated that the sooner the inefficient farmers leave their land to the efficient the better it would be for the national breadbasket.

*Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn lost the (eighth) Presidency of Amherst for subjecting its traditions to radical educational experiments not dissimilar to those proposed for Wisconsin.