PROFESSOR DE WULF DESCRIBES MERCILESS DESTRUCTION OF LOUVAIN BY GERMAN HORDES

The heroic attempt which the University of Louvain is making to recover from the effects of German vandalism was told a CRIMSON reporter by Professor Maurice De Wulf, of that university, who recently arrived at the University as exchange professor of philosophy.

"The Germans would have destroyed the whole university, but that the buildings are scattered through the city," said Professor De Wulf. "Three of the 15 or 20 buildings were utterly demolished; and the troops destroyed the laboratories and the interiors of the others during the retreat just before the armistice."

Erect New Library Elsewhere.

When asked whether a new library would be built on the site of the famous old one which was completely destroyed, Professor De Wulf replied: "No, they will not build there, but we will probably leave the ruins there. The university would not be free to build on the ruins. It is an historical monument, and the government would interfere with any change. The American universities have raised $500,000 to erect a new library, which will probably be built outside the city on more extensive grounds. I don't know when they will begin to collect books, but we want to have a library as soon as possible; I could not understand a university without a library."

In spite of the destruction of the library, the psychophysiological laboratory, which was one of the finest in the world, and most of its other equipment, the university is showing itself very much alive. This year there are about 700 students in the arts and sciences, 700 in the engineering school, 500 in the school of medicine, and 500 in the law school, while the enrollment in the entire university is over 3000.

Immediate Recovery Doubtful.

Professor De Wulf hesitated when asked if he thought Louvain would soon recover its former prominence. "We had four idle years," he said. "We have many students, but I rather think the number will decrease next year. This is a period of reconstruction; young men will go into business instead of college. The arts will suffer, although medicine and engineering will have a great development. We hope to have some strangers, however, for I have heard that there are already some Spaniards and Portugese coming, and we expect to have also some English and Irish."

Students Were Heroic.

The German advance in 1914 was so rapid that escape was impossible. The faculty of the university, although forced to remain in occupied Belgium, suffered little from the war. "The students were wonderful to join the army," Professor De Wulf continued. "There was an electric wire fence around the boundaries six feet high, but nevertheless hundreds and hundreds passed."

Speaking of the relations between Belgium and Germany, he said. "There will not be friendship, but they will resume trade. Germany will be considered on merely business relations; there can be no sympathy for centuries. They literally exhausted the country. They wanted the copper, they wanted the wool, they wanted the cotton, they wanted everything." They were allowed to want, at the University of Louvain at least, for all the copper, including Professor De Wulf's six elaborate chandeliers, was collected in one of the college buildings. When the German officer demanded it, the president of the university replied: "We have no copper; all is gone." A party of Germans then searched every corner in every room of the building, and as this group proceeded through the various halls, there walked behind them, always just out of sight, a group of Belgians carrying the copper.

Forecasts Revival of Scholasticism.

As one of the leaders of modern scholasticism, Professor De Wulf said, concerning the revival of that medieval philosophy, "The revival already exists, all over the world. There is no single country where there is no revival of scholasticism. I believe neo-scholastic philosophy has solutions for many problems, and that it is especially worth being considered today. We don't claim to come back to the Middle Ages. We want to harmonize the doctrines of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine with modern science. When a doctrine is not satisfactory, we drop it."