ALMA MATER DOLOROSA

One of the students at Smith College is lost. A country wide search has been organized but no one has yet been able to find the missing lady. It is time for reflection on the problem: Can the college girl take care of herself? Psychologists and others claim that she can--when she is in a crowd. For safety the question resolves itself into: Should the college be maternalistic? Facts seem to show that it is so. Facts seem to show that it is so. There are all sorts of rules to take good wholesome care of the undergraduates--no smoking, restricted week ends, and early closing hours. This benefits the girl. This teaches her. Be she as simple as nature on entering college the dodging of the machine action of these rules brings her at the end of her course the usual diploma. What culture is to a man's college, sophistication is to a woman's. This will show that it is far from true that every girl who goes with college men is a college girl.

But what can be said of the Smith student so naive as to get lost? Perhaps it would indicate a need for more rules. It is only fair, however, to state the side of the college authorities. While to the world the lady appears to be lost, she is, per se, travelling. Nor is it well known that at the end of four years at college a person knows how little she (or he) has learned, whereas at the end of travel she realizes only how much. This is regarded as an argument for Smith.

But meanwhile the anxious father has offered five hundred dollars reward for the finding of his daughter. Recently in desperation he has doubled the sum. A thousand dollars for the man who picks up the right girl.