AIRING IDEAS

Students in school and college habitually display a self-conscious reticence about revealing their "inner selves" which serves as well to conceal the absence as the presence of ideas. Religion has been so much regarded as a purely personal matter that it is often stiffed for lack of an airing. For the purpose of bringing religion out in serious discussion with eminent and interesting men the Silver Bay conference is held yearly.

There are other diversions beside talking and thinking offered at Silver Bay--baseball, swimming, canoeing and mountain climbing in a country almost as beautiful as Switzerland. But neither the primary nor the secondary object of the conference is to tack up new athletic records nor to supply opportunities for strength contests. The gathering is frankly a conference, a religious conference wherein active men such as Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick and Dean W. L. Sperry will lead a discussion of practical questions of an all-important subject.

It is often said that "they do things better in France." Certain it is that the Frenchman argues on all possible occasions on subjects which Americans avoid. The result is that while the Frenchman keeps his ideas sharp and clear, the Anglo-Saxon is apt to leave his thoughts in the dim background. There will be ample opportunity at Silver Bay to try the French method, not only with older men but also with delegates from a large number of other colleges. Anyone who is so firmly fixed in his faith that he has nothing to receive, or so strongly silent that he has nothing to give, will not find a niche waiting for him at the conference.

But for the man who has had enough of college to become sceptical or for that man whose beliefs need an airing, Silver Bay will prove an excellent training ground.