THE DES MOINES CONVENTION

Nearly every member of the University delegation to Des Moines found in the conferences he attended there quite the opposite of what he expected. Men looked forward to a discussion of broad religious problems with their economic and political bearings. What they got, for the most part, from the speeches in the big Coliseum was narrow sectarian religion. It is all very well to tell your audience to think of the most beautiful thing in the world and then conceive God as something still more beautiful--that was the substance of Dr. Robert E. Speer's address in the opening session of the convention--but this type of oratory does not impress the ordinary college man. Not all the speeches of the convention were of this type, however: Dean Brown of Yale gave an inspiring address on the great international problems facing the world today. But up to Friday night, when the bulk of the Harvard delegation left, his had been the only practical speech of the convention.

It would be superficial, however, to judge the conference merely from the speeches delivered in the Coliseum. An opportunity was afforded to meet and exchange views with men from other colleges and throughout the world, a chance, as one man expressed it, "to get the dope on yourself" that could not have been offered by a small convention or through ordinary discussion. There was something remarkably imposing in the mere sight of seven thousand delegates representing all races and nationalities gathered under a single roof. That was one of the things which helped make the conference broad.

Indeed, the convention made a real contribution. It pointed the way to possible future gatherings guided by practical ideas and discussion, gatherings which would be of inestimable value to the country and the world. The material was at hand. That the conference did not accomplish much of a practical nature was not the fault of those who guided it. They did not intend that it should; its purpose was religious from the start.

Similarly organized conventions, aiming at discussion of religious, industrial, and political problems in a broader way would be of the utmost value to the present generation of college men.