akohomban
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Edited Text
January 21, 1920 [1921]
Dear Mother, Father, and Pete:
I have the pleasure to announce to you that I passed the Ec. written the other day. Considering that over half the people who take Baby Ec flunked it, I am quite proud of myself. Some of the best people in my class, and it is a splendid class, including Dorothea Schmidt, flunked it. The department marks on a basis of five, and I figured out by the marks next to each question and by the final marks at the end, (all of which had been erased but were distinguishable, that I had an average of four and a half. That is either B or B plus. It certainly was a corker. Father, do you remember the paragraph in the outline book about the fact that fixed capital hindered the adjustment of market price to normal value? We decided that it was unintelligible. Well, I had checked that in my book to ask about the next recitation, and then we got that as one of the three questions on the quiz. There was only one in all the classes who got it completely right. I put up a big bluff, not knowing what I was talking about, and got away with it, evidently. That is the one way I can bluff--on paper. If I try to doit in class my unconfident voice and facial expression give me away. Miss New Comer told us that the reason they gave this written was to show us where we stand before the exam. Most of us stand on trembling ground, I am afraid.
We had to write for a half hour in chem this morning. I managed all right. As long as it is memory work, I am safe. Then after that he started firing questions at us. I excaped until just after the bell rang. He is hard of hearing, and very rarely hears the bell. I was going to tell him that it had rung, but I thought that was making it too evident that I preferred not trying to answer. Finally he called on another girl for something else, and she came forth very strongly the the answer, "Professor Moulton, the bell rang over five minutes ago". It was very funny--he thought so too.
This morning in history class the Federal Convention discussed whether to abandon or amend the articles of Confederation. We had great fun. I advocated abandonning them, and the discussion became quite spirited. We all prefaced our speeches with remarks such as this, "As you no doubt know, I represent such and such a state, and my state elected me to do so and so. i feel that I am on my honor to see that this is done, and if you will not consider this, I feel it my duty to leave the convention." It was very funny at times.
Our next history lession, for Tuesday, is to make out an exam. We all decided to make out easy ones, because we all have a feeling that it would be just like dear old Aunt Lucy to hand these papers out the day of the exam, instead of making one out herself! Dr. T. has been known to do that in physiology.
I heard an intensely interesting lecture last night by Dr. Haas (sorry I don't know his first name, Pete, but it was not announced), who worked for eight years in Adena. He spoke principally about the Turkish attitude in the Armenian massacres, and then he considered the method of overcoming this intense hatred of the Turks. He proposed doing it by deeds of love, and similar bunk. He told one story to illustrate the intensity of race hatred in the region in which he worked. He said on the big Mohammedan feast day every Mohommedan sacrifices a sheep to Allah and prays that as many Christians be killed that year as sheep have been sacrificed. On Easter every Christian tried to see how many Easter eggs he can eat, and prays that that year as many Mohannedans be killed as eggs have been eaten. And the Jew prays that both these prayers may be answered. I had never heard that story before, but I should imagine that it is a pretty true expression of the situation. And that is not so very much different from what the Zionists will encounter. I was telling Helen Reid after the lecture what the man had to say, and I also expressed my doubt of what could be accomplished by the love he advocated. I thought the two examples he cited of what it accomplished were glaring examples of the exception to the rule, and I said so, too. She said, maybe, but it sounded reasonable to her. About ten minutes later she happened to be talking about war relief, and she mentioned that she would never want to give a cent to Austrian war relief until every poor person in this country were taken care of. I asked her how she reconciled that attitude with what she had just said, that she believed in "turning the left cheek". (Isn't that the expression? I am not up in these religious discussions, you know!) Anyhow, she admitted she was stumped and that that system would not work in practice. Altogether it was a very interesting evening.
I must get ready to go to town now. We decided to call on Miss Salmon this afternoon, and to walk down and back.
It is quite warm. I am afraid that the ice is going to melt. Love, Fannie
Dear Mother, Father, and Pete:
I have the pleasure to announce to you that I passed the Ec. written the other day. Considering that over half the people who take Baby Ec flunked it, I am quite proud of myself. Some of the best people in my class, and it is a splendid class, including Dorothea Schmidt, flunked it. The department marks on a basis of five, and I figured out by the marks next to each question and by the final marks at the end, (all of which had been erased but were distinguishable, that I had an average of four and a half. That is either B or B plus. It certainly was a corker. Father, do you remember the paragraph in the outline book about the fact that fixed capital hindered the adjustment of market price to normal value? We decided that it was unintelligible. Well, I had checked that in my book to ask about the next recitation, and then we got that as one of the three questions on the quiz. There was only one in all the classes who got it completely right. I put up a big bluff, not knowing what I was talking about, and got away with it, evidently. That is the one way I can bluff--on paper. If I try to doit in class my unconfident voice and facial expression give me away. Miss New Comer told us that the reason they gave this written was to show us where we stand before the exam. Most of us stand on trembling ground, I am afraid.
We had to write for a half hour in chem this morning. I managed all right. As long as it is memory work, I am safe. Then after that he started firing questions at us. I excaped until just after the bell rang. He is hard of hearing, and very rarely hears the bell. I was going to tell him that it had rung, but I thought that was making it too evident that I preferred not trying to answer. Finally he called on another girl for something else, and she came forth very strongly the the answer, "Professor Moulton, the bell rang over five minutes ago". It was very funny--he thought so too.
This morning in history class the Federal Convention discussed whether to abandon or amend the articles of Confederation. We had great fun. I advocated abandonning them, and the discussion became quite spirited. We all prefaced our speeches with remarks such as this, "As you no doubt know, I represent such and such a state, and my state elected me to do so and so. i feel that I am on my honor to see that this is done, and if you will not consider this, I feel it my duty to leave the convention." It was very funny at times.
Our next history lession, for Tuesday, is to make out an exam. We all decided to make out easy ones, because we all have a feeling that it would be just like dear old Aunt Lucy to hand these papers out the day of the exam, instead of making one out herself! Dr. T. has been known to do that in physiology.
I heard an intensely interesting lecture last night by Dr. Haas (sorry I don't know his first name, Pete, but it was not announced), who worked for eight years in Adena. He spoke principally about the Turkish attitude in the Armenian massacres, and then he considered the method of overcoming this intense hatred of the Turks. He proposed doing it by deeds of love, and similar bunk. He told one story to illustrate the intensity of race hatred in the region in which he worked. He said on the big Mohammedan feast day every Mohommedan sacrifices a sheep to Allah and prays that as many Christians be killed that year as sheep have been sacrificed. On Easter every Christian tried to see how many Easter eggs he can eat, and prays that that year as many Mohannedans be killed as eggs have been eaten. And the Jew prays that both these prayers may be answered. I had never heard that story before, but I should imagine that it is a pretty true expression of the situation. And that is not so very much different from what the Zionists will encounter. I was telling Helen Reid after the lecture what the man had to say, and I also expressed my doubt of what could be accomplished by the love he advocated. I thought the two examples he cited of what it accomplished were glaring examples of the exception to the rule, and I said so, too. She said, maybe, but it sounded reasonable to her. About ten minutes later she happened to be talking about war relief, and she mentioned that she would never want to give a cent to Austrian war relief until every poor person in this country were taken care of. I asked her how she reconciled that attitude with what she had just said, that she believed in "turning the left cheek". (Isn't that the expression? I am not up in these religious discussions, you know!) Anyhow, she admitted she was stumped and that that system would not work in practice. Altogether it was a very interesting evening.
I must get ready to go to town now. We decided to call on Miss Salmon this afternoon, and to walk down and back.
It is quite warm. I am afraid that the ice is going to melt. Love, Fannie
