The Yale Commencement

To the Editor of the New York Times:

Under President Angell, at New Haven, a novelty in deportment has been invented that deserves advertisement. After inviting the graduates, in the usual way, to the commencement dinner, the college has sent out unusual instructions, telling the graduates what will be expected of them in the way of manners. Among the men so invited and so instructed are the survivors of the Yale class of 1875, who are to walk near the head of the commencement procession, in commemoration of the fifty years that have passed since they left New Haven. I am one of those few survivors.

I must decline Dr. Angell's invitation because it has been hinted that we old men are not desired beneath the elms. The college secretary has permitted a public statement that the college officers fear that returning graduates will drink, unlawfully and riotously. An official college paper tells us also that the college authorities wish the visiting graduates to refrain, in New Haven, from any public or private breach of the law. These unflattering suggestions have been published in many newspapers. Dr. Angell thus seems to say: "I deplore your coming. I am anxious lest you set a bad example to our young people. I am afraid that you will break a law which I love and respect, and get us in discredit with the police. I am afraid that you will get drunk on my doorstep."

I have no respect for law, merely as law. It is the duty of every citizen to show his contempt, so far as is convenient and seemly, for any laws that seem to him contemptible. . . . I would have my grandson study Rabelais, Montaigne, Ben Franklin and Li Tai Po, rather than William Jennings Bryan.

Dr. Angell's deans, secretaries and proctors seem to have joined the new fanatics, telling us to abstain from thought and wine. Those who make a living out of the new ethics have to say such things; but the officers of a richly endowed university do not need to earn their salaries by intoning the foolish credos of the newly established State religion of the United States. They should be of the school of Socrates, who "heartily enjoyed social pleasure and deemed it unworthy of a man capable of self-control to abstain from innocent gratification through fear of falling into excess." . . .

. . . Some of us, therefore, intend to celebrate our Yale anniversary in Montreal, with discreet and well-ordered dinners, such as are customary and lawful in civilized societies; and by staying away from New Haven. Newell Martin. Huntington, May 25, 1925.   --New York Times.