COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 379 



objects for which clubs have been founded is truly wonderful. We have 

 the purely literary club, the club with political aims, the university' 

 extension club, the club founded for social purposes only, the club which 

 meets once a week to discuss Bach's fugues, and the Luncheon Club, 

 whose members combine the pleasures of the palate with the flow of soul. 

 Many women are active memlDers of half a dozen clubs and pay dues to as 

 many more. In view of these facts we are tempted to answer the ques- 

 tion in the affirmative, and pronounce the Woman's Club one of the 

 typical fads of the day. But although the movement is subject to this 

 criticism it has, nevertheless, an underlying strength and dignity of pur- 

 pose which lifts it far above the level of golf and pink teas. The super- 

 licial woman and the faddist come into intimate touch with women of 

 strong intellect and noble purpose, and the influence of the latter is cer- 

 tain, in the end, to raise the standard of the club. 



Again, the prevailing spirit of democracy is regarded by many as one 

 of the most significant development of the present day. Its spread has 

 not been so rapid among women, because the feminine mind is by nature 

 aristocratic, but it is rapidly gaining ground even here, and the club is a 

 most important factor in its development. Mrs. Van Riper finds, for 

 example, that plain Mrs. Brown, whom she has been accustomed to re- 

 gard as far beneath her in the social scale, is preferred before her on 

 account of superior intellectual, executive, or artistic ability. She finds 

 that hers is not an exceptional case, that the same thing occurs wherever 

 the club has been founded upon the sound basis of recognition of indi- 

 vidual merit, regardless of persons. As a consequence Mrs. Van Eiper's 

 aristocratic ideas receive a rude shock. The democratic feeling is pro- 

 moted much faster, however, by unity, or at least sympathy of purpose. 

 There is nothing more leveling than this. In earnest striving for a com- 

 mon end the time honored traditions of caste are forgotten, and even 

 women become, for the time purely democratic. 



While this spread of democratic ideas is a source of congratulation, 

 there is another tendency of this age which is not. I refer to the dis- 

 position among both men and women to acquire a wide surface culture, 

 rather than to become really well-informed along a narrower line. The 

 so-called educated person of today must possess a bundle of information 

 pertaining to almost every conceivable subject upon which the thinkers of 

 the world have thought or written, from the weaknesses of Plato's 

 philosophy to the hidden significance of the last movement of the Czar. 

 This tendency is naturally manifested in its most pronounced form in 

 the club, which is often founded purely for intellectual or educational 

 purposes. Some one has said that "clubs and classes are for the ac- 

 cumulation of superficial information, and for unloading it on others, 

 without much individual absorption by anybody." While this is far 

 from being strictly true, there is nevertheless a deplorable leaning to- 

 ward extension rather than intension, toward breadth rather than depth. 

 Although this has the advantage of awakening the mind to a sense of 

 intellectual duty, and produces brilliant versatile minds, it is also true 

 that the reason for the present dearth of really great writers can be 

 traced largely to this same tendency. • i t^ 



Another significant feature, which relates purely to the social lite 

 of the times is the fact that the feminine sex has recently discovered that 

 it can enjoy itself independently, and as a result there is a growing dis- 



