THE DAILY "N; E B R- ASK A N . - -
' - 1 - -
The Dally Nebraskan
Property of m ,
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
Lincoln
C A. SORENSBN
Editor-in-Chief
aiannRins Editor ...S Swv.ni
Associate Editor R. VAKS?J
Associate Editor. "fe '
Athletic Editor Henry Kyle
Business Manager nKF,PeJ&!n
Asst. business Manager.. Russell F. Clark
Subscription price $2.0& per year,
payable in advance.
Single copies, 5 cents each.
Entered at the postofflce at Lincoln.
Nebraska, as second-class mail matter,
under tho Act of Congress of ..March 3,
1S79.
"WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1914.
"Chew the Bag" all you want to Imt
subscribe for it first.
We wonder if the lord is neutral.
iNapoleon once said that God was on
the side of the heaviest battalions.
That isn't fair. If he is going to help
.at all, be ought to belp the under dog.
FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL.
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you of the crannies;
Hold you here, root and all, in my
hand,
lattle flower, but if I could understand,
What you are, root and all, and all in
all,
I should know what God and man is.
Alfred Tennyson.
RENEWED INTEREST.
The Greek language, historians and
philologists to the contrary, is not a
dead one. The multiplication of Greek
letter organizations and the feverish
anxiety of University loys and girls
to decorate themselves -with Greek
liadges is an indication of the growing
interest in the Greek alphabet. It is
even rumored that TJr. Xiees -will soon
Introduoe a course 3n Greek signs and
letters. Practical work will be given
in the reading of fraternity and
sorority pins.
The wearing of Greek pins brings
happiness. It's a sign thBt you are dif
ferent or better or worse than some
body else. Now why not increase the
sum total of student body happiness
by organizing another half-dozen
Greek letter societies?
We suggest that the Scandinavians,
the Bohemians, the! Low Germans, the
High Germans, and the Ulster Irish,
organize themselves into exclusive
and Inclusive fraternities and sorori
ties. And why not the Blondes and
Brunettes ? They hav.e nothing Jn com
mon. A Brunette Kappa Si sorority
would make a hit. But no more than
the Blonda Chi Phis.
There is one more fraternity that we
insist should be organized. The Fatta
liana Ns. The room where they should
meet ought to have two entrances,
one hy a door of moderate size, and
the other by double doors. If a candi
date for -this elite but corpulent fra
ternity could make his entrance
through the first, he should he looked
upon with disdain as unqualified; hut
if he stuck in the doorway and wouldn't
force his "way through the double
doors should immediately be thrown
open Jot Jais entrance and welcome,
and all should salute him as hrother,
tell him of their distinguished fat
alumni, and diplomatically inquire
whether the new hrother wanted to
pay the trifling initiation lee of $50.00
that day or the next.
HAIXETT
TJnL Jeweler
EstaMMml l7i
1143 O
A LETTER TO STUDENTS. .
By Dr. Hi B. Alexander.
Students and professors returning to
the University of Nebraska this fall
will see little change in the outward,
aspect of things. The college yard
and buildings are the the yard and
buildings of former years; the sights
of the town are the familiar sights.
Except that Nebraska is blessed with
a peaceful abundance which gives us
all a more than ordinary feeling of
security, this year is externally like
the years of the past; and the stu
dents' duties, - we may suppose, will
follow the routine which time has
made familiar.
And yet an intense1, if unseen,
change has taken placq. We may
fall into customary grooves, but the
spirit with which we do so will be
unlike that of any former year. The
problems of life, and above all, the
problems of education have suddenly
presented an aspect which they never
wore before, and student and profes
sor alike is face to face with issues
calling for every intellectual effort
of which each is capable.
Outwardly we can not realize this
European war; inwardly it is yet
vague to us; but the certainty that
it is bound to alter the whole course
of our lives, individual and national,
few will deny. Perhaps the most far
reaching feature of the conflict, and
certainly its deepest significance to
lis, is hardly indicated in the daily
news. 1 mean its relation to the
maintenance and progress of those
arts and sciences which are the heart
and life of our civilization, lien are
prone to gauge progress by its outer
glories feats of engineering, expan
sion of commerce, stabilization of gov
ernments; but we should never forget
that behind the .bridge is the mathe
matical formula, supporting commerce
is scientific investigation, and nour
ishing statecraft is the wisdom which
comes from the preservation of human
experience in human history. Without
the intellectual substructure the out
ward pomp of our culture would van
ish like a mirage.
And what does this war mean for
the intellect of the world?. France,
England and Germany have carried
this earth's intellectual burdens and
achieved its intellectual triumphs for
the past Ave centuries. The training
of a mind is not accomplished in a
day; its gift to society is the slow
(labor of years. Can anyone doubt
that whatever the outcome of the
present war in a political way its
effects upon the itrained minds of
western Europe can he only dis
astrous. The higher works of peace,
when peace Is restored, will suffer
more terribly than all else. Science,
scholarship, literature, art, these
must give way to the more pressing
needs of political and economic and
social reconstruction; the machine
must be rebuilt before its product
oan be manufactured, the garden must
be regrown "before its fruits can be
forthcoming. Partly this will he due
to economic stress, for mental achieve
ment is only possible In well-provi
sioned societies; partly it will be due
to actual loss of trained minds, the
young men of nniversity training
whose lives are lost or maimed, the
gifted children to whom education must
be denied, the many hundreds of men
whose nervouB and mental strength
will be permanently weakened by the
stress of war; and in part it will be
due to the fact that Europe Trill re
quire all its surviving intellectual
powers to repair its immediate ills
France, -exhausted hy the Napoleonic
wars, required the long lethargy of the
region of lanis Philippe -to partially re
gain its lost spiritual senergy. Can
any man think that the present -war
will not he far more deadly to the
spirit of modern Europe?
And in view of this, what is our
part? America is ill-prepared lo be
come the hearer of the light of cul
ture; it iB to no trained runner that
tho torch is cast. Tet it 1b obTious
that the race 2s to tie. For the next
generation, perhaps for the next cen
tury, or five centuries, we must stand
in the forefront of progress, per
forming a great, if not the greater
share of "the world's mental labors
this, if the work is to be performed
at all. It would be the idlest of con-
celts for us to suppose that we can
succeed in such a task without the
most intense and serious effort; we
are as vet far from the van of pro
gress, and must achieve what the otter
nations are losing before we can pass
them; the immediate! future of the
world, despite our best, is certain to
be a period of retrogression; neverthe
less, if we persist, we may hope event
ually to save the loss, and better it
with gain. In any case the duty of
effort is clear.
But what is the first step?
It is one the students must take
a step for our youth. I have already
said that the training of minds is
slow. It is slowest of all for work in
those fields which require long and
impersonal effort; for. work in science
and scholarship and" the patient analy
sis "of history. Without work of this
character, civilization must perish;
hitherto, we have borrowed its fruits
from generous fatherlands; now we
must mature them by our own toils.
The task of the generation calls for
a certain amount of abnegation of
personal interest and prospect; it
calls for a willingness on the part of
our young men and women to un
dertake the most laborious paths of
knowledge, to prepare themselves with
even a pajnful "thoroughness for hand
ling problems for which no prepara
tion can be altogether adequate, and
finally to find their contentment not
in immediate advantage to themselves
but in the final gain of the race. We
have fed upon the sugars of culture;
let us now make its honest bread.
For each Individual the problem of
the advantageous route must be a
private problem- Each must decide,
from the! best light of Ms own reason
and the best thoughts of friends and
advisers, in -renal immediate direction
his studies shall work. -The main re
quirements from the individual are.
first, a willingness to give oneself
wholly to the evident need, and sec
ond, a resolve to act only upon the
naaturest judgment which nature con
cedes. Starting with such a spirit
the right way will sooner or later be
found.
But while! all is thus general, I wish
none the less to indicate one great
gap In our national preparation for
the task that is ours as I think, the
greatest gap. More than any great
folk we are in need of men and women
with a clear sense of the sources and
promptings of our civilization, with
a developed Historical sense, in its
richest xaeaning. What differentiates
civilized man from the savage is the
civilized man's knowledge of his own
history; such knowledge Is the only
sure anchor of culture. We can not
know ourselves -until we know the
past not only of those who were our
physical fathers, hut above all of
those people who have given ns our
spiritual heritage. This Is no light
nor easy study- It calls for knowl
edge of languages, ancient and mod
ern; it calls for devotion to political,
economic and social history ,and to
the logical analysic of fact; It calls
for familiarity with the literatures,
arts and philosophies of western peo
ples, from Greek and Hebrew to the
English and German; and it calls for
a power of effective use of this
knowledge. Not all is open to one
student, though he gives a lifetime to
the field; but if many students, from
many angles, give earnest effort to
this -central task of preserving, as liv
ing ihougbt, tie hard-earned experi
ence of generations, then Indeed we
may "be certain that whether America's
addition to the world's -culture he
great or little, it wilj yet have won
the gratitude of future generations hy
preserving in time of ithrtetening
darkness man's moBt precious wisdom.
H. 23. ALEXANDER.
THE
Ilniversitv School of Musk
Established 1894
Opposite the University Campus ElerenUi and R
Instruction given in all branches of music Students may
enroll at any time. Beginners accepted. Prices;reaspnable
WILLARD KIMBALL, Director
CO-OP BOOK STORE
Has anything a student needs. Buy and sell second
handbooks.
Watch This Spare Evry Pay
318 North 1 1th St. Lmcda
University YMG A Cafeteria
IN THE TEMPLE
FOR UNIVERSITY FOLKS ONLY
Quality Economy Convenience
MEAL HOURS 7-8:30 U-J:30 5:30-7.
Hil Souls Cburcb
A Free Religious Society
lth&HSts.
Hrtbur X. XSCleatberlp, flMmeter
Morning Service at 10:45
The Students' Liberal Religious Union meets every
Sunday from 12:00 to 12:45 for the free discussion of re
ligious problems.
A. University ovens wide its doors to aH seeker after the truth. It Unit its i
tynoionnuIcfbcIitL It face is not toward the past, hut toward the future- h'tiridt fa
inhrmor thou -who dacovmarw truth. It reverences the aftatamrsts el tfee patj but smb
them to secure vtogna in Hit present. ALA. SOULS' CHURCH seeks to irnMrc. sfefc
igHreiailv ideal in the field ct religion.
ptiiiig Strvkf if tit ytar, $ipf. 21th
Subject "The Fundamentals of the Religion of Democracy
A Sermon for Youth
You Arm Invited
RUSH !
TO-
GRAVES PMNTERY
For Program's, Menu's, Etc, for EUSH WEEK
"
To All New StwtfMts.
TVe extend a most cordial lnvl-
' tation to visit oht store. To all
rely ruing students ure extend the
glaa land. George Broth erg, -
Printing, Engraving, Stationery,
School Siipjtlies, 1313 N street
1-3
C&x. to -write wi nSnHrii?
Will jM TOfc:tatiMl7 sm. lMr
eftciy? H -wmH ytmr
sen-icee m repttpyt mrn tfce Daily
XefeMiouL Xwfi? Jtotor t3Jw
teaakaa Uairanttv &U,
feehreea 2iW $: e'ttock.
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