Zion's Herald. He had written, also, for the Sunday School Times of Philadelphia, and other papers. He was the author of a considerable number of devotional works. The funeral service was held in Centre Church, Malden, Friday, May 10, and was in charge of Rev. Dr. Archey D. Ball, the pastor. The committal service was in Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn. Dr. Mudge is survived by two daughters, one of whom, Ada, is a graduate of the College of Liberal Arts in the class of 1903.

'78. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Theology '78, M.D. '86, presented to the Government on March 25 the hostess house at Camp Johnson, Jacksonville, Fla. Dr. Shaw addressed on the same date a meeting arranged by the Florida division of the Committee on Public Information Division, Woman's War Work. This was the first of a series of meetings throughout the United States at which Dr. Shaw will speak on the work of the Woman's Committee.

'92. Bishop Franklin Hamilton, S.T.B. '92, Ph.D. '99, died at his home in Pittsburgh Sunday, May 5. He was born August 9, 1866, at Pleasant Valley, O. He early removed to Boston, prepared for college at the Boston Latin School, and graduated from Harvard University in 1887. After teaching Latin and Greek for a time in the University of Chattanooga, he studied at the School of Theology of Boston University and received the degree of S.T.B. in 1892. He studied, later, three years in Paris and Berlin. He was granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Boston University in 1899. In 1916 he was elected to the episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.

SCHOOL OF LAW.

Dean Albers was appointed by Governor McCall to attend a conference in Philadelphia May 17 and 18 in the interests of a world peace on a satisfactory basis. Dr. Harold M. Bowman was a member of the convention.

Friday, April 19, was observed as "Tribute Day" at the School of Law. Exercises were held in the morning in honor of the men of the School of Law who are in the service of the country. There were presented to the school a silk service flag by the senior class, a portrait of President Wilson by the second-year class, a portrait of Governor McCall by the first-year class, and a book containing the names, photographs, and brief biographies of the students of the School of Law who have entered the service of the country. The chief speaker was Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels. Other speakers were Governor McCall and Dean Homer Albers.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.

The Alumni Association of the School of Medicine held its annual banquet in Young's Hotel on Saturday evening, May 18. Speakers included President L. H. Murlin, Dr. Barbara T. Ring, Dr. Charles T. Howard, and Major Robert Lovett, of the Boston Committee on National Defense. The following officers were elected: president, N. M. Wood, '93, of Charlestown; vice-presidents, E. S. Calderwood, '04, of Roxbury, and Katherine French, '10, of Framingham; secretary, C. W. Clark, '14, of Newtonville; treasurer, S. M. Coffin,'10, of Boston.

W

AFTER SPANISH-WHAT?

Samuel M. Waxman,

'HEN American education was still in its swaddling clothes,
Greek and Latin were the languages studied by the majority

of youthful seekers after learning. And they were studied thor-

oughly, for then the American pupil knew English grammar, a

subject now fast disappearing from our high school curricula.

French and German were mere frills, pastimes with which the

student amused himself as a relaxation from the more serious

liberal arts. They took the place now occupied by the "movies."

Later, French and German became more strongly entrenched, with

German the favorite in colleges because of the rise of German

science and philosophy and the lure of the easily acquired Ph.D.

"made in Germany." Italian was studied because of the cultural

interest in Italian art and literature. Spanish, however, was a rarity,

and scarcely known on high school programs. Soon French began

in the East to supersede German, and students went to France to

study French instead of pursuing that language at a German univer-

sity.

Twenty years ago came the Spanish-American War, and as

a result of our possessions in Porto Rico, the Philippines, and our
protectorate in Cuba, Spanish began to be studied in our schools

and colleges, not for cultural reasons but for purely utilitarian purposes. With the completion of the Panama Canal, Spanish began to rival French and German in certain parts of the country, and displaced either one or the other. The present war has given a further impetus to the study of Spanish, and now it is gradually taking the place of German everywhere. In many schools German no longer appears on the program, and is prohibited by statute from being taught in some localities. Most of our vocational and commercial high schools now teach only Spanish, although a few are making a pretense of teaching French and German. Thus in the Boston High School of Commerce, where some fifteen hundred youths are pursuing the arts of Mercury, about ninety-seven per cent of them are studying Spanish. A boy going into the commercial branches of study takes Spanish as a matter of course. Spanish has become practically synonymous with commercial foreign language. Of course in some schools a part of the German landslide has fallen on French territory, and our deep sympathy for France has increased the numbers of students of French. But on the other hand, in large German centers like New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee, the German teachers have accentuated the already artificially inflated Spanish boom so that they will not have to teach the language of their despised and degenerate enemy. Meanwhile Greek has practically disappeared, and although Latin has here in the East thus far withstood the onslaught of the vocational and utilitarian influences, it has to fight for its life.

It is idle to argue as to the superior cultural value of German over Spanish. Neither language was ever studied from that point of view in this country. Why not face the cold hard fact that there exists no cultural spirit in our high schools, where so many students are merely marking time and waiting for the day when they may be released from the bonds of learning. To be sure, some technical schools may continue to insist on German and some colleges may still require a knowledge of German for the A. B. degree. But it is surprising to see how many western colleges will accept Spanish as a substitute for German, and the eastern colleges are rapidly following in their wake. The educational trend is no longer east to west, however much we in the East may like to lull ourselves into believing so. The American Association of Teachers of Spanish is already agitating the move that Spanish

35

be universally placed on a par with French and German as a college requirement. The high schools especially have been urging this step. It was not so long ago that the colleges were accused of dictating the policy of high schools. It looks now as though the high schools were shaping the college curricula.

Some of us college professors often ask ourselves: "Are we moulding public opinion on educational matters or are we drifting along the current, following the vagaries of the unthinking public? Is it our duty to give the public what it wants even if it insists upon something that we know is but the whim of a passing moment? Are we not guilty just now of moral cowardice in fearing to urge the retention of the German language because we are at war with Germany?" In France more German is studied now than before the war. As a nation we think in droves; our psychology is gregarious. We are ashamed to have ideas that are not popular. If all our friends have automobiles and go to the "movies," although we may not care a whit for either, we gradually acquire the habit and follow the crowd. We have it so continually drummed into our ears that the country will go to the dogs unless our children study Spanish that we finally come to believe it. This psychological failing is capitalized by the moxie man, who, with pointed finger, suddenly looms before you at all turns and hypnotizes you into thinking that you must drink the insipid concoction.

The percentage of students studying Spanish in this country is entirely out of proportion to the relative importance of that language to the average American pupil. Not only is Spanish studied. feverishly by large classes in high schools, colleges, extension courses, and correspondence courses, you can also acquire it from our itinerant hawkers of languages by the ba-ba bo-bo method, without text-book, without study, without anything, in fact, except the payment of a fee. To use a familiar Americanism, "Everybody is doing it." Have you ever known a high school trained student who has found a position as foreign correspondent or traveling commercial representative for the Spanish American countries? I have been longing for many years to meet this rara avis. This stampede for Spanish has created havoc in our high schools and colleges. French and German have been taught none too well in our American schools, and when successful French and German teachers are thrown suddenly into the teaching of Spanish

without adequate preparation we are almost driven to tears. In no other nation of the civilized world would such a situation be tolerated. In France, for instance, teachers of foreign languages must pass severe tests in pronunciation and must demonstrate their ability to converse freely in the language they wish to teach. Here, even in our large cities, teachers not only cannot carry on the simplest conversation in Spanish, they cannot even pronounce it with a fair degree of accuracy.

It is tragic to witness the efforts of a teacher well along in years struggling with a new language. And by teachers I do not restrict our teaching force, as do Europeans, to the feminine gender. On the contrary, a woman assimilates a language better than a man at any age. I defy you to teach a man past forty a new language. In proportion as the adult grows his vocal organs become less flexible, and he tries to use his reasoning powers too much. He has graduated from the monkey-parrot state of the child, who learns by mimicking his elders. But since he is asked to teach by the direct method he, too, attempts to learn by that method. Behold the latest panacea for remedying the evils of our modern language teaching--a shibboleth, a word as meaningless as the term "efficiency," which we meet so often in our educational parlance. For some years past the cry has come forth from the high priests of modern languages, or at least those who are looked upon as such, "Let us make our French and our German and our Spanish living languages, let us train our students to speak these languages." But if, as is more often the case than not, the instructor cannot carry on a conversation in the language which he is teaching, how can he possibly teach others to converse? Heretofore, we may have done little else than to teach a knowledge of French and German grammar and train students to read ordinary prose in those languages; now that Spanish is coming in on this wave of direct methoditis, there rises the danger that a solid knowledge of Spanish grammar and syntax will be thrown over for a few catch. phrases such as "open the door," "shut the window," and "how do you do?" Ask the average pupil how he was yesterday or to shut the door to-morrow and he is all at sea. As a rule he has not mastered the fundamentals. Even though he would like to know how to say it, his instructor cannot help him, because he, too, has been trained by this method at a summer school course of six