Summary: | Page Two. THE CONCORDIAN Thursday, March 10, 1938. Dean's List, No Exams Might Raise Scholarship Average FIRST semester grades recently released reveal that scholarship at Concordia the past semester was the lowest in years. Scholarship should be the chief goal in one's school life. One may gather that perhaps the emphasis on extra-curricular activities is crowding out the schol-arship goal. Probably there has been too much to do and too much to go to for efficient study. Maybe conditions in the dormitories haven't been ideal for scholarly work. At any rate, the fact remains that Concordia \>ffers little concrete incentive for high scholarship. Oh, yes, we have the Alpha society, class prizes and the semester honor rolls, but they arc small inducements. One Moorhead-Fargo college has a "dean's list" containing names of students of high averages who need not account for their absences from class. Some of our conference schools exclude high ranking seniors from taking final examinations. Similar practices here might alleviate the temporary wane in scholarship at Concordia. Your Originality Needed For Successful Musicale PLANS were launched this week for the all-college review, a musical comedy which is to display the talent of the entire student body. Soon will come the call for tryouts by those in charge. Soon will come the opportunity for students with undiscovered musical and comedy ability to show what they have. Concordia can build up a production similar to the Bison Brevities and the January Jubilee if this first venture works out successfully. For this first year the review will be sponsored by the Inter-society council with all eight literary societies cooperating. Your originality along comedy .and musical lines is needed! LSU Convention-Goers Find Meet Splendid 'Mountain-Top' THE 1938 Lutheran Students' union convention held at Augustana college, Sioux Falls, S. D., last week end is now history. Some 40 Cobbers, who were in attendance with over 350 visitors, have returned to Concordia, richer spiritually and better acquainted with students from our other church colleges. Those students and others are looking forward to a splendid convention at St. Olaf next year. » Conventions often turn out to be worthless af-fairs. But the iLSU convention was a wonderful fel-lowship of Christian college students all seeking out the theme, "Christ Controlled Lives." Most inspiring to those attending was to witness over 400 college stu-dents, who some claim are "going to the dogs," par-taking of the Lord's Supper Sunday morning. The convention-goers have returned from the "mountain-top". Their alternative, as for all per-sons, is now: "Either I crucify myself or I crucify Christ." Latest Device Tests Present Resources of College Graduates T ATBST testing devices fc>r today's college grad- J—J uates are comprehensive examinations of intellec-tual resources seniors will have to use in facing the busy outside world. President Henry M. Wriston of Brown university, Providence, R. I., the first school to try the unique experiment, says such tests will attempt to measure "what students know today rather than what they have known—what they have retained and have avail-able as current resources.'* These tests also measure what seniors have learned from extra-curricular activities and from every-day social and cultural contacts on and off the campus, since ordinary scholastic examinations never weigh "the thousand and one other things that a normal person does" In upholding one's duties as a citizen. Concorbtan PoblUhed weekly during the school jc*r except daring tbi Tieation, holiday and examination period*, by itudenU of Cbncordia Coll«c«, Moorhead, MinnioU Entered as Mcoad CJBM matter at thf pottofflc* Uooihaad. tk COPYREADERS: Gladys Isaacson, Harjorle TtUbtrr. REPORTERS; Martha Amdal, Ora Brademrer. En nice Carson, Alpha Dahl, Irene Daw*, Ellen Eldam, Vivian Hager, Leila Keil, Delilah Hlckelsob, Ncola Mo«n, Anna Rasmussen, Eva Strain, Anna Walla. SPECIAL WRITERS: Beulah Friteh, LnVcrna Stslnolf-son, Margaret Nelson, George Braseth, Delight Stockton, Carol Zank, Oreal Halland. SPORTS WRITERS: John Holsen, Norman ROM, Curtis Thompson. BUSINESS MANAGER: Otto Lutness. ADVERTISING MANAGER: Gunnar KJol. CIRCULATION MANAGER: Mavnard 8Il**th. CIRCULATION ASSISTANTS: Unit* Brodln, L*U Johnson, Warn* Walllu. ADVERTISING ASSISTANTS: Roland . Qnam, Mdvln Bennlngton, Donald Dahl, Robert Canon, LjU LM. LIBRARIAN: Mik)r*d Swanson. LITERARY ADVISER: Josephine DJomson. BUSINESS ADVISER i Norman Nordstrand. . • OTHEK CAMPUS ODDITIES DIRECTOR OF THE U.OF TEXAS EANfc ONCE TRAVELED O/ER 27,000 MILES TO PLAY A SINGLE NOTE/ HE WENT 10 CALCUTTA, PLAY ONE NOTE,BRAT, ON A FRENCH HORN IN ONE OF BEFTHCVENtf SYMPHONIES. CAUFORNIA HAS EfcKt INDIANA BASKET-BALL TEAM CANADIANS ON THE-HOCKEY *WAD/ Sticksful By L. W. S. Sveen Berates Medicine, Apple Polishers From Hospital Sickbed. OOLLEGE.OLU BANS ^ , DRAMATICS, CARDS. DRINKING, AND TUEATER /W MCWIE ATTENDANCE ,ST1LL ,rr IS THE FASTG5T GR0WIN6 OOOBJE W AMERICA TOCAY/ Barring Of Below *C Freshmen From Societies Finds Favor Do you believe that only freshmen with a C average or better should be admitted to our campus literary so-cieties? This question was asked eight stu-dents picked at random about the cam-pus. Five favored such a proposal. Here are their replies: Otto Gilbertson, senior "Societies, I believe, would help the student to rea-lize the" importance of better scholar-ship. The participation in societies would not interfere with a student's study schedule." Clifford Gronnebcrg, freshman, "I believe a C average should be required. It should be an incentive for the fresh-man students with below a C average to work harder. Verncr Hanson, senior, "From what I hear of the low scholastic average of last semester this may provide an in-centive toward more application." Marilynn Knudsen, sophomore, "I don't think a student with low grades should necessarily be kept from join-ing a society. He may be the type that would work well in a society even though his grades are not average. Under the influence of other society members, he may work harder in order to help keep up the academic average of the society. Eileen Lindgrcn, freshman, "No. I don't believe marks should interfere. I might wajit to join a society." James Olson, sophomore, "The at-tainment of a C average is not too Concordian Headlines From Past 7 Years Tell Campus News March 12. 1937 Eleven students qualify for member-ship in Zeta Sigma Pi, honorary social science fraternity. Male chorus organizes with 40 mem-bers. Engebret Thormodsgaard is di-rector. Everett Gilbertson '36 elected head of Lutheran Students' union at Con-cordia convention. March 13, 1936 Alpha Psi Omega will present Mrs. Norma Gooden. Ostby's original play, "Kinfolk," at Cape Girardeau, Mo. March 8, 1935 Band leaves on week end trip to Fergus Falls. March 9, 1934 Students receive Mantoux test for tuberculosis. t March 10, 1933 Concordia concert band plans World Fair trip. Six Cobbers attend St. Thomas de-bate tourney. March 13, 1931 Choir plans home concert after re-turn from 1,500 mile tour. March 13, 1930 Miss Borghild Torvik gives piano re-cital. She is a pupil of Miss Clara Duea. . Kermit Overby, editor of Tlie Con-cordian, is elected president of the Lu-theran Press association. Lettermen meet to organize the Let-termen's club. George Lee is elected its first president. Hutchins After F. R.? Washington, D.C.—(ACP)—Dr. Rob-ert Maynard Hutchins, youthful presi-dent of the University of Chicago, should be the next president of the United States, claims Novelist Sin-clair Lewis. . - ' much to expect from the college fresh-man. It should be left entirely to the student's own discretion. If he fails in his academic work because of outside activities, no tears should be shed for him and for his own good he should be dropped from the roll of the college." Kermit Piltingsrud, junior, "Although a society meeting once a week won't take away much time from studying, there are activities that the society un-dertakes throughout the year that re-quire quite a bit of time." Inez Thorsen, junior, "I think any-one who is interested enough to come to college should be able to obtain a C average and thus it may be an in-centive to spur them on to be better students. If, this column seems to get bitter at times it's because I'm writing it just after taking a portion of the worst me-dicine a pharmacist has ever concocted. The ancient Greeks would have been happy to have had it. They could have given Socrates his choice of drink-ing the medicine or hemlock. Well, perhaps that is exaggerated a little but the potency of this medicine is not ex-aggerated. But to get to my supposed subject. I have an excellent idea for someone to write a book. Td do it, but I don't know enough about the subject. It should be titled "How To Win In-structors and Influence Honor Points," or the "Subtle Art of Polishing the Apple:" It should have a great sale on the ash heaps which pass for a campus here. By the by, where I come from they have trucks and dumpheaps, but probably Moorhead hasn't such things. Or maybe Concordia hasn't heard of them yet. But I digress — it's the medicine. The book would contain advice on how to apply polish, from the funda-mental placing of the polished fruit on an instructor's desk to the more subtle forms of the polish. Speaking to the instructor after class, firing questions that may not be too in-telligent and working into the instruc-tor's friendship by doing favors etc., all could be included. I am anxiously waiting for someone with experience to begin writing. But I still say this is some fierce medicine. Not Foreigners, Lutherans Are First Are Lutherans in America a bunch of foreigners? Head this: The first clergyman ordained in America was a Lutheran. The first book translated for the Indians was Luther's Small Cate-chism. The first American flag was un-furled by a Lutheran general. The first president of the Con-gress of the United States was a Lutheran. Disgruntled Male Deplores Rules Restricting Fjelstad Hall Usage Students are Inritcd to express their opinions on topics of campus and general interest. Name of the writer should be submitted with th« communications and will be used nnleas not desired. These letters are not necessarily the opinion of The Concordian or Its staff. Why can't the men be permitted to visit the south parlor of Fjelstad hall during the week? There has been much discussion pro and con on this. According to rumor the reasons for the denial of the privilege are: first, it has never been done before; second, it will ruin the furniture; third, this will be an infraction of study hours and fourth, the plan will never work. May I refute these objections? In the first place just because it has never been done in the old Ladies hall is no reason. Will it ruin the furniture? Abso- Hitler's Acts Create Balkan Unrest By OREAL HALLAND Czechoslovakia, one of the most im-portant of the succession states, has the most to fear from Hitler's policy of Nazification. She has within her boundaries over 3,200,000 Germans. Ever since the hu-miliating Treaty of Trianon, which dis-membered the former Austro-Hungar-ian empire, this German minority group became a part of Czechoslovakia much against its will. From that day until the present they have agitated for "local autonomy" or union with the German Reich. With the ascendency of Hitler to power in Germany this group has intimated that the Nazi Reich was prepared to fight in its be-half. Last week General Jan Krejci, chief of the staff, announced, "Czechoslova-kia must be prepared to defend herself alone for the first few days against a brutal and quick attack by motorized forces, assisted by aviation." A few days later the French gov-ernment renewed^ its pledge to aid Czechoslovakia in any emergency. Prcs. Edward Bones declared that Czechoslovakia is not interested in dis-cussing with Berlin the question of granting "local autonomy" to its Ger-man minorities. Hitler ignored the insult and ap-peared content to wait until Premier Chamberlain has drawn up his plans for the proposed four-power pact which will exclude Russia and a consequent loss to Czechoslovakia's system of mili-tary alliances. In such an event the German Reich may recover the Ger-man minorities lying just inside the German-Czechoslovakian frontier after a geneafcl settlement in central Europe. lutely not! That is absurd! After all the men of the college are gentlemen, not destructive children. The plan will never work. That statement is one I wish to especially refute. In the first place no one knows because it has never been tried. Let's try it first, then criticize and condemn afterwards. Now let me point out some reasons why men should be permitted in the Fjelstad hall parlor. 1. Men were practically promised it before the dorm was built. 2. Men work to help pay for the building but hardly ever have occasion to use it. 3. Couples will see each other re-gardless. Isn't it better to have them in the dorm than standing in darkened nooks and corners. 4. There are now two parlors in Fjelstad hall. The fact that men will be able to be in one during week nights will cause no inconvenience to anyone. 5. Outsiders consider' Fjelstad hall a virtual convent when they hear the present arrangement Personally, I believe better relation-ships between all involved would re-sult if this matter would be seriously considered. —A dissatisfied male. Date Night, Red Nail Polish In News The Spectrum, North Dakota Agricultural college. O. R. (Doc.) Vinje, North Dakota Agricultural college senior and airplane pilot, finds that airways are safer than sidewalks since he slipped on one of the icy ways and fractured an ankle. The ManUou Messenger, St. Olaf college. Social obligations were reversed last week when women of the college were required to open their purses for Sat-urday evening's entertainment of the men. The Augsburg- Echo, Augsburg college. At Augsburg college, controversy is raging whether the women should adorn their fingernails with scarlet polish. The Augustana Mirror, Augustana college. Augustana men refused to let a crop of epidermial weeds adorn their faces last week even though the women seemed to rcpret it . ;; • 'Dancing A Device To Make Lust Decent' By REV. C. B. YLVISAKER Religion Department Head Of all the questions repeated with monotonous* regularity at league conventions, at Bible camps and in church school classrooms, the most tiresome is this: "Is it a sin to dance?" Yet, the very recurrence of the problem reveals that our young people are being put to the test. How terribly true that is anyone with eyes half open knows! Inability or unwillingness to dance virtually ostra-cizes from the social life of many communities, and of the majority of public and private schools as well. It closes the door to the social fraternity and sorority; sometimes to position and honor. One state now requires of all public school teachers that they be proficient in "the noble science of heathen deviltry," as the Puritan fathers termed the dance—an indication of what looms up ahead. It is scarcely necessary to re-mind intelligent readers that there is no connection between the danc-ing to which the Bible alludes and the modern social dance. The one is a strictly religious rite, still in vogue among Orientals, with no contact between the sexes; the other, originating in the brothels of ancient Greece, is indulged in purely for pleasure, and rarely C. B. Ylvisakcr carried on unless the sexes are al-lowed to mingle promiscuously. Luther once said, "Dance as the children do, and l!U dance with you." It just isn't done. In earlier issues of The Concordian we have spoken of the great cardinal principles of Scripture which are to guide the Christian in his everyday living. Let us test the dance by these: 1. Can it be practised without sin? It is extremely difficult to argue the wrong in dancing with anyone who is not absolutely honest with himself. It is next to impossible to get anywhere with the person who does not accept Christ's spiritual interpretation of the law as embodied in the searching - pronouncement of the Sermon on the Mount: "Whoso-ever looketh to lust hath already committed adultery in the heart." (Parapharse by the writer). But mouths are quickly stopped when the Word is per-mitted to lay bare the thoughts and intents of the heart. We often waste words in getting at the real root of the evil. We deplore the late hours, the unhealthy environment, the presence of liquor, the wasteful ex-travagance, the doubtful companionships, etc. God knows enough could be said about all these by-products of the dance. A Christian father who knows what a night club b would rather see his daughter dead than in the foul embrace of the moral lepers who infest these spots from coast to coast. The proprietor of a summer resort not far from Moorhead said to one of our pastors: "Come with me next Satur-day night and 111 show you a hell on earth." Some of us have seen them with our open eyes. But many suppose the problem is solved when a line is drawn between the public and the private dance. What can be the harm when only a select group is present and carefully chaperoned? The evidence against this form of social diversion is still overwhelming. It comes from pastors, profes-sors and police women, sociologists, social service workers, matrons of redemption homes, former danc-ing masters and last, but far from least, from the young who have sacrificed their virtue on the altar of sensuality. Their unanimous verdict is that the modern dance is the "dance of death." Why? It is responsible, they tell us, for the early, unnatural and abnormal stimulation of the sex instinct. It is the most ingenious device ever invented to make lust look respectable. (To be continued next week). The Press NORTHWEST PASSAGE BY KENNETH ROBERTS Doubleday Doran Co., Inc., New York, 1938. Price: $2.75. 709 pages. Major Roberts, the hero of "Northwest Passage," is a colossus so strong that to his rangers he was aa tough, imperishable and indestructible; a force so great that even had his body perished, his ghost would have continued to lead, to thresh and fight on. And as his men believed, so too, is the reader in-clined to believe. The power of the story, the power of the character are unrealizable till one begins to read "Northwest Passage." Undoubtedly the most powerful part of the whole book is centered around the capture of the Fort of St. Francis from the French. The greatness of Ma-jor Robert Rogers is at its height when he leads his small band through unknown and treacherous tracks to capture the uncapturable, St. Francis, and then leads them back almost by sheer personal strength in spite of sufferings, starvation and trailing French. But the war ended and Rogers dreamed of a passage to the Pacific overland by Indian trails which would bring more power and riches. He went to England to gain support for his venture which was almost to succeed. His ambition only pulled him down. From then on he" lived as wildly and riotously as he fought, his vision and energy rising only to cause him to fall lower. He wandered from America to England and back to America, always In the midst of activity until he be-came more like a legend than a man.—M. ML N. . AH books reviewed In this column are avail- BWC at the Concordla library.
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